Pics of NEW EVH Amp...

[toejam]

He looks like a homeless crack baby!

[quiksilver]

In defense of EVH

Dude, are you serious?! I have to say, yeah, Eddie was the pioneer to which many big names, and small names (and no-names) either emulated or at least inspired, but, come on. Yeah, he's the original, but I don't think he's anything like he used to be, and there are many that have far surpassed what he has done. Yeah, Eddie will always have been a major influence both to myself and many others, but this isn't the same Eddie of yesteryear.

(Sigh). Here we go again. Time to defend EVH.

+1000 to MBreinin’s comments. I can’t imagine what satisfaction anyone can derive from continually posting sniping comments about EVH. It’s ignorant, and it got very old about 10,000 pointless, stupid and sometimes cruel posts ago. I try to ignore them, but unfortunately, the posts are often tacked onto potentially useful threads like this one (which I thought was to discuss a new EVH signature amp), so here’s a response to some of the tired old claims that all of you EVH-haters keep trotting out. Please refer to it whenever you feel like posting more of this tripe.

1. EVH looks old.
This will involve math, so stay with me here. EVH was born in 1955. He was in his twenties when he first became a well-known rock star in about 1978. That was almost 30 years ago. Thus, he is almost 30 years older than he was in those VHI-era pictures. He is now in his fifties and eligible for AARP membership. I’d wager that he looks better than most of its members, but he IS getting older, and like virtually every other human being, he doesn’t look the same as he did in his twenties.

2. EVH has a drinking problem.
Maybe so, maybe not. You and I don’t know. It’s certainly common for many rock stars, so it wouldn’t be surprising. On the other hand, it’s possible that his celebrity status exaggerates his drinking, since any drunken incident involving him is newsworthy. Whether true or not, it’s not amusing, it’s none of our business, and it’s irrelevant.

3. EVH no longer contributes to the world of music
I actually understand this frustration. I loved DLR-era Van Halen, and I seriously wish there was more forthcoming, but that appears unlikely. That’s too bad, but fortunately, fans can continue to enjoy the huge contributions that EVH has already made. He’s already contributed far more than his share, and owes us nothing. Non-fans are free to listen to another artist – or maybe they could even make contributions themselves.

4. Other guitarists are “better” than EVH
First, this is art. It’s totally subjective; no one is objectively “better” than anyone. Second, even if true, it would be irrelevant. Believe it or not, one can be a fan of EVH and other guitarists at the SAME TIME! Trust me, it’s totally legal. If your new favorite player is Yngwie or Vai or even Jack White – well, bully for you. Go ahead and enjoy yourself. Even evangelize for your new favorite player if you want, but know that s/he is not “better” than EVH – you just like him/her better – and criticizing EVH does nothing to enhance the position of your favorite or yourself in the eyes of your readers.

5. EVH should disappear
Even if all of the above claims were true, this would be nonsense. Look around you. There are old people all over. Drinkers, too. People who don’t contribute to the world of music. People who can’t play guitar at all. Some are even worse than you! Yet, frustratingly, they continue to exist. I know, you’re getting anxious, but don’t worry. I have your solution right here. Believe it or not, you don’t HAVE to listen to them play or look at their pictures. You don’t have to seek out clips of every backyard party they play, looking for clams, or study their shoes or teeth or faces, looking for signs of age or wear or any other defects. You can simply stop seeking them out. And guess what? You will have reached your goal! To you, they will have disappeared! You will also help me reach my goal, which is to avoid having to continually encounter your ignorant comments. Thanks in advance for your assistance. Hope this helps us both.

[Joe_Steeler]

Guys there is no need to go on attacks of personal or moral character. Nobody is perfect and EVH is no exception. There is no need to wish for a butt baby from EVH either.

The bottom line is that he has no aged gracefully due to fault of his own. Drugs and alcohol are a personal choice he made. The destructive and extreme possesion of the VH brothers over the band led to two of the best showmen to leave the group on bad terms. EVH even bad mouthed the guy that stayed through all the shit, that is MA.
His cute wife couldn't put up with his shit and left him too.

I wish he was still making kick ass music and not porno flick music.
I wish he would taken care of himself so he could still be musically influential well into his sixties (ala David Gilmour).
I wish his ego was still within earth's atmosphere so Sammy or DLR were still singing with them.
I wish he would wear full shoes so we don't have to look at those Frodo toes.

But I wouldn't go on here are absolve him of all sins and wish I was carrying his baby. He is not above us, he is human and a weak one at that.

[Endrik]

(Sigh). Here we go again. Time to defend EVH.

+1000 to MBreinin’s comments. I can’t imagine what satisfaction anyone can derive from continually posting sniping comments about EVH. It’s ignorant, and it got very old about 10,000 pointless, stupid and sometimes cruel posts ago. I try to ignore them, but unfortunately, the posts are often tacked onto potentially useful threads like this one (which I thought was to discuss a new EVH signature amp), so here’s a response to some of the tired old claims that all of you EVH-haters keep trotting out. Please refer to it whenever you feel like posting more of this tripe.

1. EVH looks old.
This will involve math, so stay with me here. EVH was born in 1955. He was in his twenties when he first became a well-known rock star in about 1978. That was almost 30 years ago. Thus, he is almost 30 years older than he was in those VHI-era pictures. He is now in his fifties and eligible for AARP membership. I’d wager that he looks better than most of its members, but he IS getting older, and like virtually every other human being, he doesn’t look the same as he did in his twenties.

2. EVH has a drinking problem.
Maybe so, maybe not. You and I don’t know. It’s certainly common for many rock stars, so it wouldn’t be surprising. On the other hand, it’s possible that his celebrity status exaggerates his drinking, since any drunken incident involving him is newsworthy. Whether true or not, it’s not amusing, it’s none of our business, and it’s irrelevant.

3. EVH no longer contributes to the world of music
I actually understand this frustration. I loved DLR-era Van Halen, and I seriously wish there was more forthcoming, but that appears unlikely. That’s too bad, but fortunately, fans can continue to enjoy the huge contributions that EVH has already made. He’s already contributed far more than his share, and owes us nothing. Non-fans are free to listen to another artist – or maybe they could even make contributions themselves.

4. Other guitarists are “better” than EVH
First, this is art. It’s totally subjective; no one is objectively “better” than anyone. Second, even if true, it would be irrelevant. Believe it or not, one can be a fan of EVH and other guitarists at the SAME TIME! Trust me, it’s totally legal. If your new favorite player is Yngwie or Vai or even Jack White – well, bully for you. Go ahead and enjoy yourself. Even evangelize for your new favorite player if you want, but know that s/he is not “better” than EVH – you just like him/her better – and criticizing EVH does nothing to enhance the position of your favorite or yourself in the eyes of your readers.

5. EVH should disappear
Even if all of the above claims were true, this would be nonsense. Look around you. There are old people all over. Drinkers, too. People who don’t contribute to the world of music. People who can’t play guitar at all. Some are even worse than you! Yet, frustratingly, they continue to exist. I know, you’re getting anxious, but don’t worry. I have your solution right here. Believe it or not, you don’t HAVE to listen to them play or look at their pictures. You don’t have to seek out clips of every backyard party they play, looking for clams, or study their shoes or teeth or faces, looking for signs of age or wear or any other defects. You can simply stop seeking them out. And guess what? You will have reached your goal! To you, they will have disappeared! You will also help me reach my goal, which is to avoid having to continually encounter your ignorant comments. Thanks in advance for your assistance. Hope this helps us both.

POST OF THE YEAR

[MBreinin]

I agree with Endrik, excellent post Quiksilver.

It comes down to this..if Eddie is so damn irrelevant, so beyond his prime, such a non-entity...then why does he garner so much fucking attention to this day? If the guy shows up at McDonald's it is all over the internet. You know why, because like it or not..EVH is the only true living guitar god we have at the moment. Even with his lack of recent material he still generates more buzz than Clapton, Beck, Holds and Page rolled into one.

He is Eddie, the final arbiter of all that is tasty in rock guitar.

End of story.

Mike

p.s., the man will rise...I don't expect a return to 1978 glory, but he is far from done.

[horns666]

It would be nice to hear him kick some ass..I been waiting...hell everyone's been waiting..Mike Anthony stopped waiting..

That amp does look like a B-52..!!!

Like E said ..in a nut shell there is thousands of hacks that truly suck ass making it big..I think we hold Ed to a higher standard..because he sets those standards..with that cocky grin of his when he was a kid...and he was smiling for damn good reason...he was the shit and he knew it..we knew it!!

I wish him well..but I'm a pessimist by nature tho..

Ed is immortal..and he's not even dead yet.

Ed is amoung the three most influential guitarist of all time..besides Jimi and Yngwie..

[pagemalicious]

I just wish that Eddie puts all the crap behind him and gets Dave to join in again and rock the f*ck out. THAT would be f*cking amazing. I would pay £100 just to see that original line up. I'm too young to of been able to have seen Van Halen and that would be one of THE greatest things in my life.

[RacerX]

Just watched the video clip.

Oofah.

[lerxstcat]

You need to realize that the criticism of EVH comes from love for him, and frustration at whazt he's become. Like those who saw Brando in his prime and then what he became at the end of his life. So let's look at your talking points.

1. EVH looks old.

More like EVH looks BAD. This has a lot to do with him dressing like a homeless crackhead and not getting the dental work he can obviously afford. He actually looks better now than a couple of years ago, but again
he's riding himself hard and putting himself up wet.

2. EVH has a drinking problem.

There's no "maybe" , that's wishful thinking. NAMM 2003 proved that. He couldn't sober up for 2 hours out of a year? The Van Hagar tour also proved it, unless you just feel that he thinks it's cool to get drunk and fuck off in front of thousands of people who paid $100+ to see him as a shadow of his former self. A friend played me a live cut of Eruption from that tour and I was embarrassed for Ed. It was pathetic. And when you pay big bucks and get that crap, then it IS your business. It's bait and switch, you paid to see a guitar god and you got a drunken wino.

3. EVH no longer contributes to the world of music

You're right, his existing contributions are legend and if he never wrote another song he'd deserve his status. Now if he'd just stay in practice enough to play his own stuff at say 85% of its original quality and fire, I and most fans would probably be happy. He's not doing that though, and shouldn't go out on a cash grab tour when he's at 40-50%.

4. Other guitarists are “better” than EVH

This is not JUST subjective. EVH chose to make his career as a gunslinger - the fastest gun in the West. So others will be judged by factors such as speed, clean technique, complexity. Now Ed as a total package is pretty hard to surpass, given the great songs he wrote in classic (DLR-era) Van Halen. But as a guitarist and judging by empirical factors, yeah there are a loit of guys who've gone far beyond what Ed did technically.

But Ed didn't have to keep up with them technically. All he had to do was keep pumping out the kind of awesome songs that added a wealth to the history of rock. And playing-wise, all he had to do was keep to the standard of those first few albums. Instead, he has declined in both his playing and his writing. He got complacent, lost the fire.

5. EVH should disappear.

Nobody wants to see EVH disappear. We want to see him stop destroying himself with alcohol and cigarettes, and regain some of the fire he had as a kid. He can't be the 20-year-old EVH again, but he could be a healthy 51-year-old, clean, sober and playing to the best of his abilities. You can't look at him dressing like a hobo, drunk on his outings and bragging about porno music as though he were working with Scorsese and not know something's wrong!

In your personal life, when someone withdraws and becomes completely self-destructive, you don't like it, wish you could do something about it. If you can, you DO do something about it. Well, we can't do anything about Ed - even Val gave up after 20 years. But we can express our frustration.

[horns666]

Rich..I love ya man...you always "get it"..

You hit all the nails on the head ...every word..

We are on the same the exact same page ..

In fact, KEEP this post for ALL future EVH disputes, conversations and whatnots..and just post it again and again..

It'll save you and I alot of work next time..when it comes to any topics in c/w Ed..there's always a next time.

THAT IS THE POST OF THE YEAR..about Ed anywhoo..

[horns666]

Just watched the clip too...you can't be serious...It's worse than I thought..I'm speechless..

My son makes better noise on his Jackson..and that's a big NO SHIT!!

Wow..that was wayyyyyyy beyond bad..

[Joe_Steeler]

Yes. Just a sad case of a "guitar hero" has been.
We will never forget him, he meant lot to the instrument we all love here. But I am sad to say he is toast, too far gone. Kind of a joke now.

Clapton after excising his demons kept his dignity, Jimi went down in flames and it happen suddenly so we never saw him make an ass of himself to EVH's degree, Jimi Page just disappeared, Yngwie is still eating donuts but has not gone that low, and so the list goes.
He is selling his name ala ZW & George Lynch trying to make a buck.

Eddie is just a disgrace right now. I wish him the best.

[horns666]

..NOBODY here can be in that much denial if you watched that clip..unless your deaf and blind..THAT just put the fork in it for me..I'm done with him.

The king is DEAD..long live his name!!

Pathetic!!

[Bengal65]

I just wish that Eddie puts all the crap behind him and gets Dave to join in again and rock the f*ck out. THAT would be f*cking amazing. I would pay £100 just to see that original line up. I'm too young to of been able to have seen Van Halen and that would be one of THE greatest things in my life.

That probably wouldn't have a chance in the world. About as possible as the Beatles reunion was Believe me I'd love to see it! Those guy's rocked.

[Crankdaddy]

Let's be nice, guys. We all know that the road to recovery starts with a single step. And for Eddie, that step is this:

http://www.lamisil.com