Eddie Van Halen: The Complete 1980 Interview - Tape 3 (HD Audio)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 апр 2023
- This Talking Guitar podcast features the third tape of my day-long 1980 interview with Eddie Van Halen. If you haven’t already heard them, check out the first two hours, which are already posted in my Substack online magazine and on RUclips.
A bit of background: Just before the Tape 3 segment of our interview begins, Eddie played me a song called “Could This Be Magic?,” from Van Halen’s upcoming album, Women and Children First. Eddie mentions that this is the first time he ever attempted to play slide. He then talks about his favorite tracks on the album and how Van Halen albums have been doing in the charts. He explains why there is no guitar solo on Women and Children First, and how he hopes to play something classical as his next recorded guitar solo. He reveals that he’s been listening to a lot of classical music - especially Bach and Debussy - and laments that too many guitarists play what’s already been played.
This interview took place in Neil Zlozower’s photo studio in Hollywood, and Neil joins in from time to time, especially as Eddie discusses other guitarists, such as Randy Hansen, Ritchie Blackmore, Rick Nielsen, Rick Derringer, Jeff Beck, Leslie West, and several others. In other highlights, Eddie speculates about what he’d do if he ever goes solo and confesses that he and Alex, who were still living together, “duke it out all the time.” He makes the case that rock and roll magazines hate the band Van Halen and says he does not like doing interviews. He then talks at length about his guitar collection and offers advice for those who want to build their own guitars. At various points in Tape 3 Eddie plays his unplugged Frankenstrat.
A final note: This podcast is shorter than the ones for Tapes 1 and 2. This is due to Eddie’s having spent about 25 minutes popping in cassettes and playing me finished tracks from Women and Children First. This section has been edited out for copyright reasons and because the songs can be heard in far better fidelity on the actual CD and vinyl releases.
I hope you enjoy this unique recording, and be sure to check out the other historic Van Halen interviews on the Talking Guitar RUclips channel. To help us continue producing podcasts, please hit that donate button and send some cheer our way: paypal.me/TalkingGuitar.
A special thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the 43-year-old master tape. For more guitar-intensive podcasts and articles, visit my online Talking Guitar magazine at jasobrecht.substack.com/. #vanhalen #eddievanhalen #edwardvanhalen #jasobrecht #talkingguitar #nikhunt #guitarplayermagazine
This podcast is copyright 2023 by Jas Obrecht. All rights reserved.
![XO (Only If You Say Yes) - ENHYPEN エンハイプン 엔하이픈 [Music Bank] | KBS WORLD TV 240712](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wBT1bKKwPTo/mqdefault.jpg)
A lot people don’t know about these tapes. They are gems. Great documentation about one of the most influential and fascinating talents of the last 50 years. It’s no exaggeration that EVH is one of the greatest guitarist that ever lived. His influence is immense. It’s undeniable. His talent and his humanity are all evident. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest musicians in modern history.
Another gem! I read the original but hearing the conversation is even better. Thank goodness the tapes were saved.
I love Eddie’s accent in these days - “it’s def’rent” “it’s semple” “don’t man’chun it..”
amazing i could listen to eddie for hours
these audio tapes are amazing to listen to! thank you so much for allowing us to hear these! Love ya Eddie ❤
There is a wonderful moment during this interview where Jas asks Ed about whether there is an instrumental solo section on WACF....There KIND OF WAS on the Intro for FOOLS but its too short to really count as a piece of music & is similar to what Ed had done on the first 2 albums....& on here Ed says -'I don't care much about things on guitar which have been done already whereas most players only do what they have seen others do already. They look at the guitar as if that's all its for & don't try to think outside the box for new things'.... & then Gloriously ED goes to Jas- ' I don't just want to put on an instrumental for the sake of it....Because Eruption and Spanish Fly were kind of similar things. And what could I do THIS time ? ...what if I FIGURE OUT SOMETHING WITH THE FINGER THING WHICH IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT' ?......And true to his promise what 'New finger thing' did ED come up with within just MONTHS of this interview ?..You can can hear him playing it live at WACF gigs in Spring 1980 ? ....THE F*CKIN' MEAN STREET INTRO !!!!! ....He invented it just after Jas's interview here a year BEFORE it was put on the Fair Warning vinyl in 1981. He was playing it LIVE in 1980.....A FINGER THING TOTALLY DIFFERENT from Eruption & Spanish Fly & Even MORE inaccessible to other players to figure out than Eruption was. If guitarists were all scratching their heads at the vinyl turntable with Eruption in 1978 they were scratching their heads 10 TIMES MORE at the Mean Street intro in Spring 1981...🤔🤨...lol...With just his hands on strings thru an unmodified guitar and Amp he makes the instrument sound like NOTHING we had EVER heard before...Even HENDRIX would have been BAFFLED by it..🤔 I believe that NEVER before in the history of guitar technique has a sound submerged the technique by which its achieved ! ...Personally I don't believe modern guitarists like Vai, Thal or Eklundh have come up with anything as originally different on the guitar as the Meanstreet intro. Ron Thal once said in an interview..(quote)..'I had done all my years of Jazz theory . Then someone put on the MEANSTREET INTRO for me....THAT F*CKED MY SHIT UP.... I never realized you could be that innovative with the instrument (unquote)...With sight & sound study you have copycats on You Tube trying to copy/reproduce it but JUST IMAGINE WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO THINK UP AND INVENT SOMETHING LIKE THAT ?? .....ED was a GENIUS 😲😲😳 WASN'T HE ? ...I mean, c'mon ? ...Think about it ? 🤔😲..Its so difficult to see what influenced him & that's the HALLMARK & SIGN of Great Innovators...Its difficult or IMPOSSIBLE to tell who their influences are. Ask what influenced that intro ? ..He said for the first part the way bass players slap he applied to guitar but that wasn't with notes sounded by the Right hand. & how can ANY influence explain Ed's MAD left hand note, right hand harmonics speed octave intervals ? ...They are just CRAZY ....lol..Involving both open harmonics & relative harmonics ,,hammer/release in a tiny time frame. With just his hands on the strings he makes the guitar sound like a kind of 'ALIEN DEMENTED MACHINE'....lol ..Nobody had done that. Not even Hendrix or even Jeff Beck.
Thank you for this legendary material!
Jas, these are gems! Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much for these interviews. As a kid I wanted to know what his voice sounded like and to know what kind of person he was. Your interviews confirm what I suspected; he was just a good, sweet, honest dude. ❤
Stamm69. Me too.. I didn’t hear what his voice sounded like until an interview in 1991 …Here in the UK there weren’t any interviews with his voice on or film of him talking. When I finally saw and heard footage of Ed I was moved by the way he looked genuinely embarrassed by people paying him grandiose compliments..Plus Ed in interviews could be really FUNNY..lol…He didn’t take himself too seriously even though he took his creative space very seriously. There was an endearing quality to Ed which these other rough necks like motley crue just didn’t have. I’m sure Jas and Steven Rosen appreciated this..Even though Ed could swear and smoke a lot, Ed was like a creatively sensitive soul really. Who played with Kittens with his wife…and would give her a kiss in out take footage in between video takes when filming him at the piano blowing smoke rings…lol
@@walterevans2118 I felt/feel exactly the same. I had the same impression lol. I remember seeing the cover of a tabloid where he and Valerie were crying…that image stuck with me. Thats love
@@stramm69 yes…Ed and Valerie had a GOOD THING GOING together….That was always very clear. Even if there were problems later they were CLEARLY SOULMATES.
Loving these. Great job man !
Thank you, Jas.
Thank you for sharing!
excellent Jas thanks to you, Neil, and Ed. This was amazing and I'll be listening to this many, many times!!
Thank you Jas
These are required for every VH Fanatic/ Stalker--- These are so priceless
This is so good, thank you.
I remember reading the article and I MIGHT still have it ,but the audio is the best. A real treat, special. Great putting this out
Thanks. All the best 🎆🎆🎆☮️👍
Thank you Jas!!!
Jas, Thank you for posting this. it's great to listen to these tapes. Hearing your, Eddie's and Neil's honest views of the music and musicians at that time. Eddie talking about his building of his guitars. His playing techniques. It's all good! I could see why Eddie got along with you. Thanks for standing up for Duane Allman. After I read the Pat Travers interview, I traded his Putting it Straight album for Lynyrd Skynyrd's Give Me Back My Bull3ts, best trade I ever made.
Thank you Jas
This is total fly-on-the-wall conversations you know every rock star has but never gets released. I just love hearing Eddie's honest uncut opinions during the golden age of rock. I cant figure out why Eddie likes the 335 so much over say a Les Paul or SG.
Thank you Jas. Your a lucky man. I’m almost 52. I remember discovering Van Halen in ‘81. This is gold.
Another nugget and look inside the mind of Mr Van Halen. Nice work Jas.
I had this issue of GP and read this interview so many times. I loaned it to a student of mine and never saw it again lol. This is really special, thank you.
Thank you very much! 🙋🏻♂️
Ahh JOY !! ....THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS JAS .......God Bless. ❤👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks so very much once again Jas! It’s hilarious hearing Zloz’s unmistakeable voice in there!😂
Great stuff!!!!
This article was a guitar Bible for me as a then 15yo guitar punk. Thanks!!
Amazing Jas!
Hey now Johnny!!!
@@jimnicholas7666 Hey Now!
I'm so glad my brother got to listen to this interview. I just checked his History and before passing he saw this and the previous one. I just wish he would have lived to have heard the Parts 3, 4, and 5.
I am sorry for your loss and send my condolences. I hope that listening to Eddie brought some joy to your brother's final days. Thank you for sharing this unforgettable message.
22:28 Ed made mention he used the neck plate off his 61 strat for the Frankenstrat. That has long be a supposition by many for years, and here it confirmed by his own mouth.
Another fantastic insight into the mind of the fantastic Eddie Van Halen! Thank you Jas! ❤
5:25 you can absolutely hear them snorting blow wow.
It wasn't "them" snorting blow. Neil and I didn't have any.
💚Thanx 😎
Wow, what Ed said about Jeff Beck was so true. He stayed relevant until his death. Crazy that he saw that back then.
Love hearing this, and Ed's cat says hi! LOL.
I THOUGHT I HEARD a CAT ! lol😆😅😺😺😺❤❤ xxx
This absolutely fascinating. Eddie sounds the same without any amp or effects. Thats why he was so good. He’s playing with no amp and it sounds exactly the same
Exactly….a lot of his original sounds on the guitar he could re-create on any guitar. Even without electronics. On acoustic.
His sound originality was in his fingers and his brain.
Let's not exaggerate. Those 'random' harmonic licks don't work on an unamplified guitar
@@metallinguist On Spanish Fly on unamplified acoustic he would make 2 handed techniques sound like a HARP instead of a Bach organ.
@@metallinguist The key point I was making is that Ed’s sounds weren’t coming from some electronic little box that anyone could go out and buy and reproduce at the touch of a button or a foot switch.
2:48 Discussing ”Could this be Magic?”
7:35 Classical tapping + Noodling
9:00
28:05
Even more mind blowing than the first two, please tell me there’s more…😎🙏🏻
Yes, there will be two more from 1980. And then there will be more after that.
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht YAY !! …yaa hoo ! …lol thanks Jas.
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht Amazing news, thank you so much! 😎🎸
Johnny Beane sent me to check out your content since I love Van Halen !
Thank you man!
@@JohnnyBeane no problem man!'
Hey Now Jas, your cousin Johnny Beane sent me over to your video. Very Cool 🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼
Thank you Mike!
I bought a VCR in 1981 from "Best Products," (not related to today's "Best Buy") and I was the first person I knew who had one. It cost over $900 back then, and it weighed 40 pounds. LOL. I taped countless talk shows and college basketball games, and 5 years later, all 20 tapes were basically worthlesss: the video was 100% gone, and the audio was "wobbly" and didn't really add much to it. Anyway, you should make all the words spoken by Eddie in red, for example, and all of your words in yellow. That way, we can tell exactly what's going on, because both of your voices sound somewhat alike, and a lot of the comments are about the same things. I don't know if it's too late to do that or not. I haven't heard a rock music interview that wasn't captured on film. Did Ed not want to be filmed? :D Or most likely, film hadn't really been invented for the average consumers to use, and it was just used in newscasts. Maybe you filmed all of this, but it degraded so badly that that's why there is just audio left?
Yahoooo!!
Yeee-haa !! ….lol
At 39:10 he does the mental gymnastics required to justify buying two bursts. 😂 Priceless
I remember reading this actual interview back then in guitar player.
"You're not going to print this are you??" (Eddie) 😆.
Yes, Blackmore is an asshole, along with Derringer, Sholtz and Travers isnt any good either!
Hahaha, good stuff 👍. Thanks Jas, can't wait for #4!
15:20 you're not going to print any of this... 🤣
When folks spoke freely.
So refreshing.
24:20 hates interviews.
🤟🤟
Id love to hear the story of what became of Ed's 59 LP
He sold his 58 and 59 burts and korina fly v in the late 90s because he wasnt using them. Brad tolinski I believe has that info in a recent vh book he did and VH super fan allen garber has relayed that info as well.
From what I understand he initially sold them to a Japanese collector, but where they went after who knows
They were just getting to the good part about the Franky also did not know that the star guitar was a charvel body
Thinking 3/4 size 335. Would Eddie play a 336 or a 339?
Is that a CAT at 26:31 ?? lolol arr xx😺
JOHNNY BEANE SENT ME
Patty!!!
So "Red Zone," not "Act Like It Hurts." They always said ALIH was the working title to "Growth."
Jas said he played the Frankenstrat here. Does anyone know what it looked like at this point? Still B&W? It seems to have been hidden during '79 & '80, re-emerging red for the '81 FW tour, but I've always been curious when exactly that transformation took place, & what triggered it.
Funhistory Actually , Ed might have used the Frankenstrat when it was red on The gig I attended in the end of June 1979 in London at the Rainbow Theatre….I’m pretty sure he did…Also I’ve seen definite photos of the Red Frankenstrat during the Women and Children First tour in 1980…So it didn’t go invisible to audiences between 1978-1981…During this interview it even had a white scratch plate on it temporarily. The reason Ed changed it from B&W to Red,B&W was because a Japanese company started copying and mass producing Ed’s bumblebee guitar and Ed felt his original identity was being diluted. So Ed said - ‘I don’t like people copying me when they latch onto what I’m doing…I have to remain original so I turn the corner on them ‘so I went to town on the B&W strat painting it all freaked out. It looks like a heap of junk but it plays really well’. That guitar originally Ed picked up the body from Charvel for $50 and the neck for $80 …and to think today it is PRICELESS.
@@walterevans2118 Thanks for sharing what you saw in '79! It's interesting to hear that it might have gone red on the WACF tour. At my show in May '80, he played the "star" he mentioned in this interview for the whole show.
@@funhistory Yes I remember that guitar too funhistory. Originally it was WHITE but then it underwent a very ornate striped paint job didn't it ? ....I think it was a CHARVEL body & had a Danelectro neck on it. The WACF tour in 1980 was as far as I know the only tour Ed used it on. ...Ed had wonderfully ORIGINAL guitars didn't he ?...There was nothing 'Les Paul Standard Jimmy Page' about his guitar collection was there ? .lol...Do you remember those two Mini Les Pauls he had for Little Guitars ?....& the Steve Ripley STEREO guitars on Top Jimmy with 100 knobs on them ? ...& the Baritone Guitar on The Wild Life ,,,,& all these Kramer experiments including a Double neck with tuners on the body ? ...& the double neck Ernie Ball Music Man, & striped Les Pauls with Steinberger components on them,,,and, and ,,,(I'm getting too enthusiastic, sorry , I'll shut up...🥴😣lol)
@@funhistory When ED played 'The Star' he was only playing the star guitar. ....Onstage he never played 'A STAR' at all. . He was just being HIMSELF in a pair of jeans or shorts..People who called him a 'fake rock star' were just being the victims of their own B/S.......He left the 'star' B/S to people with L.S.D (no names mentioned) And to people who would 'weaponize lyrics' ( like John Lennon did against Paul McCartney)
He painted the Frankie red in early ‘79 around the start of the VH ll tour and used it for a lot of that tour up until he retired it after the DIver Down tour. There’s tons of pics of it in ‘79 , ‘80 and he’s using it in the ‘79 promo videos
Microwaving guitar strings? Wouldn't that arc n spark and cause problems?
Also...I wonder if Mick Jones knew Eddie thought Foreigner kinda sucked by the time he helped produce "5150". Or maybe those 80s wedding songs turned Ed around? I love the pre-internet "don't print this" get outta jail card. I miss those days.
Thats a good question David....One can only hope Mick hadn't heard those early unedited Ed interviews 😿😿...Mick would have been at the mixing desk saying to Ed - 'Well Edward, I'll try not to make the production too boring like on one of OUR records'🥱😕🥴...
Ed was incredulous on the accusation that Dwayne Allman was playing out of tune on Layla. The greatness of EVH is that he has perfect pitch, meaning, he can hear all the notes on the keyboard, distinctively. So if EVH can't believe someone would say Layla was out of tune, means it was in tune.
Hmm, to me it seems he’s more taken aback that Travers would criticize someone who’d died? I dunno, maybe I missed something … Also, in his Guitar World interview in 1981, EVH said he didn’t have perfect pitch, but “an ear for picking things up.” (Personally I think Duane is a little pitchy on “Layla” but I still like it lol.)
It was out of tune. I have always noticed that myself, it makes the song unlistenable for me.
Hey your cousin Johnny sent me
Thank you Janice!
Funny Jas speaking of Travers you guys didn't bring up the point of him blowing you off in 1978 that got you the 1st VH interview;)
Did you interview Randy Rhoads?
No, but when I wrote the GP cover story about him just after he died I interviewed his mother, brother, Ozzy Osbourne, Max Norman, Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge, Randy's guitar students, Eddie Van Halen, and others who knew him.
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht I feel Randy would have excelled beyond the VH show guitar playing.. Randy's vibe was much heavier than VH.. Would have been a monster !
Zlozower tries to talk like DLR
Refretted the necks, doubt it
At one point you hear Neil chime in, saying that Eddie has "an interview coming up with (Guitar) Player". Was Neil Ed's pseudo-agent or did he just know that because he was going to be shooting photos for it?
Actually, Eddie asked me to do the cover story with him, so the idea originated with him. I got it approved and flew down to L.A. a few weeks later to do the cover story. We did it at Neil's studio because we wanted photos of Eddie demonstrating his then-groundbreaking techniques.
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht what I meant was that Neil mentions to Ed that he has(I think thats what he meant) an upcoming "Guitar Player" magazine interview. So I assume Neil would also handle the photos for that one too. My point is, was that how Neil was aware of that or was it because Neil was loosely "in charge" of Eddie's interviews? I'm probably way off about that because major artists have publicists, press agents and/or their Manager's that usually handle those arrangements.
@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht And these photos were 2 years BEFORE Ed did that book Ten at the Guitar Institute of Technology in 1982 where they had to invent new notation symbols to explain to students how Ed was doing what he was doing Jas…In a way in this interview you were ahead of the game here. Personally I think your 1980 cover story was the most important Guitar player magazine article of the 1980s …I was mesmerised by Ed’s views on the art and his original approach to the instrument.
Did He say the Destroyer became the two headed Snake Guitar ?
The Ibanez Destroyer became the chainsaw modified SHARK guitar….The Dragon Snake guitar was a Charvel explorer shape with the figures carved into it.
@@walterevans2118 ah OK.. got it..Thanks.
Any idea what the law suit with Charvel was all about or how it panned out ?
@@andrewbroughton65 Well Andrew I think originally Eddie knew the Charvel company through WAYNE CHARVEL who Ed got on really well with . But what happened was the Charvel company got Sold to Grover Jackson and he started putting out EVH related products without permission and understandably Ed took exception to it. ...I believe Ed tried to sue Grover Jackson for doing this but it may have been settled out of Court ....This was way before the Kramer deal in the 1980s.....Donny Ward would know. His knowledge is certainly better than mine on Ed's guitar history.
@@andrewbroughton65 I think the WORST lawsuits in musician history weren't legal disputes over equipment though....They were over Weaponized SONG LYRICS Andrew... Where people would make anonymous claims against another artist & then surreptitiously make it sufficiently vague to give themselves plausible deniability if accused of slander. For instance Freddie Mercury wrote 'Death on Two Legs' on a Night at the Opera about an ex manager called 'Sheffield' & the legal battles became insanely tedious. Or John Lennon after the Beatles broke up wrote a song attacking Paul McCartney ('How do you sleep at night' ? 'Those freaks were right when they said you were dead',,etc,etc.) That was a horrible bust up. But they healed it ultimately thankfully. Of course when these wars would break out the Lawyers would be wringing their hands with glee. Of course on the INTERNET these days in the name of 'unfettered free speech' its easier than EVER to slander someone in public.
I hear scraping and snorting...hmmm
Guess it's a good thing Joe Perry went back to Aerosmith...instead of washing out 43 years ago lol. Good call, gents!
Going to listen to classical music? Going to play something classical? HMMMMM, sound familiar? Who was trying to copy who??? Lol
Is Milton a Randy fan possibly ?.....lol
@@walterevans2118 it looks like Evh was s RR fan. Lol
@@miltontohd5368 I don't think there was any real rivalry between them. Ed later said he didn't feel competition with other great guitarists. He said - 'Actually they INSPIRE me. '
@@miltontohd5368 Actually Ed’s enjoyment of classical music preceded him hearing about Randy. Though his classical piano training he didn’t enjoy much Ed’s FATHER was a Jazz clarinetist and Saxophonist who Ed remembers would ENTHUSE about classical composers like Debussy and Chopin.
@@walterevans2118 is that why he couldn't even pronounce Debussy right?? LoL. Let's face it, Evh was trying to copy RR. :) But, he couldn't. RR was way too good
snort snort