EVH talks with the Smithsonian...

[GuerillaPete]

The Smithsonian is doing an interview series about "What it means to be American". They did an hour-long discussion with Eddie Van Halen. He also donated some guitars and amps to the Smithsonian.

When you have a moment, play it in the background while you're working or doing other stuff. I learned stuff about EVH I never knew - some 35+ years later!

enjoy

-PT

[lepard]

Wow, I really feel old now. Seeing Eddie Van Halen all grey and balding is just so wrong.

[Radiohead]

yep - sucks to get old... At least he seems healthy and happy

Regardless, I thought it was an interesting interview, being a VH fan from back in the day I was surprised to hear their mom was Indonesian. IMO, the rest of the interview was all pretty standard media stories that have been floating around for decades.

Regardless if you are a fan or not, I think you have to give him some props' for his innovations and advancements in guitar tone, technique & playing style and actual equipment/gear. To me, he is the Les Paul my my generation.

[Nightbat]

Regardless if you are a fan or not, I think you have to give him some props' for his innovations and advancements in guitar tone, technique & playing style and actual equipment/gear

*Some*??
I don't even want to like him, but he's fucking amazing
If Jimmy Hendrix wrote the book on playing guitar, Eddie ate it, shat it out, and pieced it back together on his own terms

[AdRock]

It was an ok interview, but I think it could have been much better with a different interviewer. It was like watching him with a female version of James Lipton. Except Lipton is more lively than her, and that's saying something.

[Newc]

What'd he donate, his old VH-1 and 2 Plexi, or the Peavey? What about guitars - the old Charvels or the Kramer 5150s?

Ah well, at least it's not the Har Rock Café, passing RR3s off as Randy's originals

But then, Rhoads had as much influence as EVH IMO, so he should be in there as well.

And Rhoads oughta get a wax treatment from Madame Toussaud's before Metallica does.

[lefty]

Wow, I really feel old now. Seeing Eddie Van Halen all grey and balding is just so wrong.

Hehe, I'm a year older than Ed. And I already felt old! But I'll say this
for him, I respect him more than other bald-headed rockers who try
and cover it up, like Paul and Gene in Kiss. Hey, maybe that's why they
booted Ace, he's still got his own hair. Or Keith Richards with the omnipresent
hair rag. If you've always got some kind of head covering, you may as well
just wear a T-shirt saying: 'I'm bald!'

[Hellbat]

EVH "I was the first person to ever use the question mark when writing. I also invented the umlaut. Motley Crue owes me tons of back royalties on that one."

Don't get me wrong, I totally respect his playing and his groove but he makes a lot of dubious claims about stuff he invented.

[Nuithari]

I watched this last week, enjoyed it a lot.
Quite funny to hear his memories and comparing them to what Grover Jackson and especially Wayne Charvel said in the Rock Chronicles interviews over at UG.

[pianoguyy]

Finally got the chance to listen.
I love when old people (other than myself) talk about all the crap we did before the internet because we didn't have the large databases of information to learn from. We just experimented and ruined a lot of gear in the process.

[TreeFitty]

I've got it playing in the background right now. Thanks for sharing this.