![]() Grabbing a guitar, Van Halen talked about finding inspiration at a Led Zeppelin concert at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Quan noted that he pioneered the art of playing with both his right and left hands on the guitar’s frets. Van Halen’s innovation isn’t limited to his equipment. Van Halen’s solution was to buy what was essentially a light dimmer at a local electronics store that allowed him to control the volume. ![]() The only problem: The sound was so quiet that only the guitarist and his dog could hear the music. But after warming the amp up to half voltage, Van Halen managed to get an “incredible” sound from it. He purchased a Marshall amp (the brand that “Eric Clapton and gods” used), not realizing it came from England and was 220 volts. He customized his amplifier with the same combination of trial and error, tinkering and luck. “Crossing a Gibson with a Fender was necessity,” said Van Halen. There was tape lying around, so he taped up the guitar, spray-painted it white, then removed the tape-and a new kind of guitar graphic design was born. (He has a graveyard of vintage guitars he destroyed for their choice pieces.)Įven the instrument’s paint job was unplanned: Van Halen painted the guitar black, but “it looked kind of boring,” he said. So he got different parts from different guitar-makers, including Gibson and Fender, screwed and soldered and melted them together, and built the instrument he wanted. Van Halen knew the sound he wanted to achieve, but he couldn’t find a guitar that could make it. “When Spinal Tap was going to 11, I was going to 15.” “I’m always pushing things past where supposed to be,” he said. In between taking up guitar and becoming a star, there were “a lot of years of experimentation,” said Van Halen-taking apart guitars, opening up amplifiers, and getting electrocuted. Van Halen was making sounds “that no one had heard before,” said Quan. That year, his band’s self-titled debut album hit stores-and turned the music industry on its head. Music journalist Denise Quan, the evening’s moderator, then asked Van Halen to fast forward to 1978. But his brother was good at the drums, so Eddie gave into his brother’s wishes: “I said, ‘Go ahead, take my drums. ![]() “I never wanted to play guitar,” he said. Eddie got a drum set, which his brother coveted. Once the Van Halen brothers discovered rock ’n’ roll, they quit piano lessons. Nonetheless, he and his brother spent years playing classical piano-despite the fact that Eddie never learned how to read music. “We always liked things loud,” said Van Halen. In a new country, speaking a new language, the one constant thread was music. The family lived in one room in a house they shared with two other families. In Southern California, Van Halen’s mother worked as a maid, and his father pursued music while working as a janitor. After their father suggested that his sons play during intermission, Eddie and Alex learned performance came with perks: The next night, they were eating dinner at the captain’s table. So they decided to pack up the family and move to California-to “Beverly” (“it wasn’t Beverly Hills then”), said Van Halen.Įn route to America by boat, Van Halen’s father performed with the on-board band during the nine-day journey. They got married and moved to Holland, where “life became a little rough.” Van Halen’s mother was a second-class citizen she was stuck at home with “two rugrats” (Eddie and his brother, Alex) while her husband was away gigging for weeks at a time. He met Van Halen’s Indonesian mother while performing in her home country just after World War II. ![]() Van Halen’s father Dutch father was a classical musician who “traveled the world making music,” said Van Halen. But, as he explained to a standing-room-only crowd at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, music shaped his life-and his life shaped his music-in unexpected ways from his very first performances. Rock legend Eddie Van Halen didn’t set out to change the way the guitar was played. ![]()
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