Value-added Van Halen

RAY ROGERS: How are you doing?

EDDIE VAN HALEN: Great! We just finished rehearsal, playing some really old stuff, like "I'm the One" off the first record. We actually did "Dance the Night Away." We were going, "Oh, should we do this or not?"

RR: How's It going with Gary Cherone?

EVH: It's just incredible. The songs actually sound like they're supposed to. I'm not knocking Dave [Lee Roth] or Sammy [Hagar], but Gary is like my musical soulmate. He's like a long-lost brother.

RR: Why do you think It took so long for you to get to this place?

EVH: I wasn't ready before. I can look back on it now and say, "I've been waiting twenty years for this motherfucker," but it probably wouldn't have worked back then.

RR: Was there ever a full-on reunion with David Lee Roth in the cards?

EVH: No. I don't like moving backwards. I know his limitations, his range, and the music I write now calls for a more diverse voice. It's a new band: the third incarnation - and the final.

RR: You're sure on that?

EVH: You can quote me. If Gary ever develops LSD - lead singer disease - I am quitting. No more Van Halen. That's why Gary's in the band. Now there's no ego whatsoever. I'm a musician. I'll make music until the day I die. Whether everyone likes what I do is irrelevant. I mean, I don't like everything Beethoven did.

RR: Aside from having a new lead singer, how is this a new beginning for Van Halen?

EVH: This is the first record where half the music was inspired by lyrics. I've played piano since I was six, and never have lyrics inspired anything in me. Half the record was written that way this time.

RR: What were you connecting to In Gary's lyrics?

EVH: For one, they tell a story. But for another, it's just the fact that I'm not fall-down drunk; I'm clear, The clearer you get, the easier things come. I was involved with a lot of the lyrics. I ended up singing on the album, too.

RR: How did that feel?

EVH: Well, I'm not a singer, but it just happened to fit the vibe. Because as long as that song is, is as long it took to write. That was my first real experience of, "Holy shit, where's this stuff coming from?"

RR: Has being sober changed how you create?

EVH: I've been playing guitar, drinking, and smoking since I was twelve. I used to think that's what I needed But then my therapist, she's a Sikh, said, "Give me twelve hours and I'll get you to write sober." I fought it tooth and nail, I said, "No way in hell. I've been doing it this way for thirty years. You're telling me you can change all that in twelve hours?" She did it in a fucking hour.

RR: How?

EVH: All kinds of yoga stuff, breathing exercises. Then she said, "Try and get to that feeling you have after you've drunk a six-pack of beer." I was really focused. After five minutes, I said, "I think I'm there." She said, "Keep your eyes closed," and handed me my guitar. Boom, I wrote three songs that day.

RR: Does music still Inspire you?

EVH: I listen to very little. I mean, the last record I bought was Peter Gabriel's So.

RR: That came out years ago!

EVH: It's a great record, though. I still listen to it. "Red Rain," man. Every time I put that on, it's just whooo . . . a great fucking sound.

RR: There's been no music since that has inspired you?

EVH: I've never been one to listen to much. I grew up on Cream and Black Sabbath, then I kind of came into my own.

RR: A lot of rock bands aren't able to connect with audiences over a long period of time. Why do you think Van Halen has?

EVH: Because we're just normal people and we haven't lost touch with our audience. We're just like them, only we play music for a living. I'm not in any ivory tower.

RR: Are there periods of your career that you look back on and wonder why you did certain things?

EVH: Only one: Diver Down [1982], because it was half cover tunes. I'd rather bomb making music that comes through me than be in the world's biggest cover band. The first album we did in my home studio was 1984. I didn't say, "I told you so," but it proved that if you do something from the heart, people feel it.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning