“He was almost offended that I said that”: Eddie Van Halen’s friend reveals how the guitarist would react to praise
Rock journalist Steven Rosen isn’t just another writer who interviewed Eddie Van Halen – he was one of the few who could call him a friend.
Over years of conversations, hangouts and studio visits, Rosen gained rare insight into the man behind the guitar. Their connection eventually became the foundation for Tonechaser, Rosen’s intimate book chronicling his friendship with one of rock’s most legendary players.
READ MORE: “That might be stupid coming from the son of Eddie Van Halen”: The surprising opinion Wolfgang Van Halen holds about guitar solos
In a recent interview with Igor Paspalj, Rosen opens up about the challenges of balancing admiration with friendship and what Eddie really thought about being praised.
“It was that fine line between being his friend, hanging out with him, being a journalist,” says Rosen [via Ultimate Guitar]. “And it was also recognising, even as a friend, that you’re sitting across the table from Edward Van Halen. You know, this guy is changing the world of guitar. He goes out and plays in front of 50,000 people, and he sells millions of records, and he’s married to this [famous] actress, and he’s all those things. It was hard to not go overboard and just be a psychopath and go, ‘My God, Edward, the solo was amazing!’, and just try to be a normal friend around him.”
Still, there were moments Rosen couldn’t help himself, and Eddie didn’t always appreciate it.
“And there were a couple times that I write about in the book where I kind of did go overboard,” he says. “It was one solo that he did on the Fair Warning record. And I forget what it was. Just one of those amazing solos. I go, ‘My God. Edward, it was incredible.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, it was okay.’ But he was almost offended that I said that.”
Eddie’s humility, Rosen explains, ran deep, even if he was fully aware of his own genius: “He was incredibly sure of who he was as a musician. He knew he was a very good guitar player. But he would never, he would never tell you. ‘Oh man, did you hear my solo on that record? It was fucking great, man. I kick ass.’ He never talked like that.”
“So, when I said that, it was almost like I was demeaning his playing, because I was sort of bringing it down to a level by saying, ‘Oh man, it was fucking great.’ It’s like, he didn’t need to hear it, and it couldn’t be defined in just a couple words.”
But even that dynamic could flip on its head. At times, when Rosen tried to dial back the praise and stay composed, the Van Halen guitarist would unexpectedly look for more.
“I remember one time, it was a song that he was really happy with the way it turned out,” Rosen recalls, “and he played it for me, or he was playing the solo on maybe my guitar not plugged in, which he would do a lot, which you can hear in the audiobook, and that stuff is amazing.”
“He plays like a bunch of stuff on the second record. Oh, my God, that’s amazing, incredible. And I’m thinking, ‘Don’t go crazy. Don’t say, ‘That’s the most amazing thing I ever heard.’ Be cool about it.’ Eventually, I said, ‘Hey man, that’s good.’ And then he says, ‘You didn’t think it was really good yet? I thought it was neat.’ Which was Edward’s way of saying, ‘It’s the best I can do.’”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
