I don't care if he can play "Eruption." Eddie Van Halen's an angry, petulant, classless little prick

[Miles Archer]

The guitarist saved his most scathing words for former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, who was pushed out of the group after their 2004 reunion tour with Sammy Hagar. "Every note Mike ever played, I had to show him how to play," Van Halen said. "Before we'd go on tour, he'd come over with a video camera and I'd have to show him how to play all the parts."

Van Halen shockingly refuses to concede that Anthony's background vocals were vital to the group's sound. "Mike's voice is like a piccolo trumpet," he said. "But he’s not a singer. He just has a range from hell. Mike was just born with a very high voice. I have more soul as a singer than he does. And you know, people always talk about Mike’s voice on Van Halen songs, but that’s a blend of Mike’s voice and my voice. It’s not just him."

When reached for comment, Anthony remained gracious. "I am proud to say that my bass playing and vocals helped create our sound," he told Billboard. "I’ve always chosen to take the high road and stay out of the never-ending mudslinging, because I believe that it ultimately ends up hurting the Van Halen fans."

Back in 1998, the group attempted to tour with a third singer, Extreme's Gary Cherone. "It was a strange thing with Cherone,” says Van Halen. "We were getting ready to go on tour, and all of a sudden, I see this John Travolta outfit — these big lapels and a crazy jacket. He’s like, 'This is my stage outfit.' That’s when I realized it wasn’t going to work. But I don’t dislike Gary at all."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/eddie-van-halen-on-david-lee-roth-he-does-not-want-to-be-my-friend-20150619

[seveneyes]

1. Eddie can't do this

[Miles Archer]

2. No, he certainly can't...that was very cool.

Going to have to hunt down more of that. Thanks for posting.

[fishwax]

4. very cool. Haven't heard Munly in quite a while.

Thanks for sharing!

[mackerel]

6. That goes up on my list of songs with San Francisco reference. Thanks :)

[Generic Brad]

3. If you can't say anything nice about someone....

...then chances are high that you are Eddie Van Halen.

[CBGLuthier]

5. Flash and show and not a bit of emotion

I can think of a hundred guitarists who have played more moving solos that are not about skill so much as taste and feeling. Van Halen bores me and always has.

[Miles Archer]

7. Though not intentionally, he gave birth to the whole wretched "shred" school or guitarists

THIS guy...Mike Varney...made his money from signing up as many of these bad hair speed demons as he could, for his Shrapnel record label.



One after another, all of these faceless Eddie clones popped up from all over the place.

Guys like Vinnie Moore eventually transcended the "shred" school (he's currently the guitarist for UFO).

Greg Howe's another one, he started out a speed demon and then got much more tasteful.

Jason Becker replaced Steve Vai as the guitarist in David Lee Roth's band, but that gig was cut tragically short when he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Those are the only three "shredders" I can name who redeemed themselves, and it seemed that in the 80s, there were hundreds of them everywhere.

Then, of course there's Satriani and Vai...never aligned with Varney...but it's pretty clear why Roth tapped him for his band. Difference between Vai and Van Halen is Vai could eat Eddie for breakfast when it comes to skill. One of Vai's first jobs for Zappa was doing a transcription of "The Black Page," a piece many musicians couldn't even PLAY. Ditto for Joe Satriani. There are chunks of guys like Eddie in his stool (hat-tip to SNL and the late, legendary Phil Hartman).

[CBGLuthier]

8. I had forgotten about Jason Becker. He is still alive almost 20 years after his diagnosis

Sounds like he might have the Stephen Hawking variant of ALS. Wiki entry says he composes and communicates using his eyes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Jason_Becker

Never been a big fan of showy guitar playing. Give me David Gilmour, Martin Barre, hell even Jimmy Page (one of the greatest thieves of American black music ever to walk the Earth(thank you Homer Simpson)) over the flashy showy guys.

[hifiguy]

10. Satch could really play but had a great melodic sense, too.

Vai always seemed to me what Zappa billed him as - "Stunt guitarist." All the techinque in the world, but the equivalent of a man who could speak fifteen languages but had nothing of substance to say in any of them. Great sideman with a defined role, but dull as hell on his own.

And Robert Fripp, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Howe or John McLaughlin could eat any of them for lunch, then sit around picking their teeth with the bones.

[Miles Archer]

11. Vai got into that whole "7th song" thing...

...the 7th track on his CDs was the melodic one, the one that was actually a "song."

Saw Fripp on Peter Gabriel's first post-Genesis tour. Gabriel introduced him as "An obscure Country & Western guitarist, Dusty Rhodes."

They played "Here Comes The Flood" but it was the more stark, stripped down version found on Fripp's first solo album, "Exposure." There is one moment where Fripp bends and sustains a single note and when he did that some guy at the back of the hall yelled "FRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!" It was one of the single greatest concert moments of my life. One note. One damned note, played as only Robert Fripp could play it.

[hifiguy]

12. Saw KC twice and Frippertronics once.

Saw the Belew quartet in '84 and the Double Trio in '95. Back in 1979 he did a Frippertronics show at the Guthrie Theater's small stage.

Met him briefly before the show. He's only about 5'8" but radiates such a sense of power that 6'1" me had to take a few steps back. Seriously, it's as though he projected a force field. IMO he is an ascended master. Of what I don't know, but he is obviously an ascended master.

[Throd]

13. He did a project with Brian May a while ago that had a hint of emotion.

Apparently he got that out of his system and went back to his old bag of tricks.

[hifiguy]

9. Hmph. Pretty classless.

Personally, I never forgave him for stealing my waifu (Valerie Bertinelli) back in the 1980s.