Guitar Tricks Insider April/May Digital Edition | Page 26

COVER STORY

have that tremolo unit but I didn’t like the
sound, so I put in the humbucking pickup. I
didn’t know how to wire it correctly, so I just
had one pickup. I used that guitar for years.”
Taking inspiration from other artists has also
fueled the Van Halen music machine. “The first
song I heard was probably [Cream’s] ‘Sunshine
of Your Love,’” Eddie recalled. “The first
distorted guitar I heard was the theme from
the movie Easy Rider. I heard it on the radio.
I thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ Then I got into
Cream and Wheels of Fire. The only other big
influence besides Clapton was Richie Blackmore
in Deep Purple. But that was a distant second.
Clapton was it. I went back and got the Blues
Breakers album.” (After Clapton left The
Yardbirds, he joined up with British blues legend
John Mayall and pioneered the usage of amp
distortion in the studio on the breakthrough
1966 release Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton,
also known as the “Beano” album.)
As things began changing in the world of pop
and rock music, so did Van Halen — but on
his own terms. For example, the main hook
of “Jump,” the band’s massively successful #1
single from their 10-million-selling 1984 album,
came from a keyboard doodle stored in the
man’s burgeoning tape closet. “I also have a lot
of guitar tapes,” Eddie confirmed. “I may take
them out and see if I like something.” In fact,
seven of the tracks on Van Halen’s 2012 reunion
album with David Lee Roth, A Different Kind of
Truth, were musically rejiggered songs that had
been initially demoed in the late ’70s and early
’80s, but had never made their way onto any
official VH release.
Van Halen was unafraid to continue pursuing his
more pop-leaning sensibilities. This is witnessed
by “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You,” the hit single from
1995’s Balance, the band’s fourth and last full
alb um with Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist. “We
write all different kinds of music,” Eddie noted.
“You can’t listen to one song and know the
whole album. That’s what we’ve always done.”
Another key Balance track was
“Baluchitherium,” an instrumental named by
Van Halen’s ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli, after
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DIGITAL EDITION

the largest land mammal whose remains were
discovered in the early 1900s (read: dinosaur).
“It had some vocals on it at one point, but they
didn’t quite get finished,” Eddie explained. “I
thought it was complete by itself, so we put
it out. This is what we do — write Van Halen
music. I want the music to hold up on its own,
by itself. And ‘Baluchitherium’ creates a mood.
It makes you feel a certain way.”
Van Halen remains untouched by the trends of
the day. “I’m not affected by whether it’s cool
or not. I never have been. Van Halen first came
out in the disco era. We always do our music
regardless of anything else. We’re out to have
fun, not be the flavor of the month. Playing
guitar is what I do; and I feel exactly the same
as I did on the first album. I feel like I haven’t
changed at all. I’m ready to have fun. I’m ready
to play.” And the cradle will continue to rock…

Mike Mettler writes the weekly Audiophile
column for the Digital Trends website and is
also the music editor of Sound & Vision.
He interviews artists and producer about their
love of music and its creation on his own site,
The SoundBard (www.soundbard.com)
APR/MAY

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