“You don’t want to talk to me, because I’m nobody”: Eddie Van Halen was “too humble” about his guitar abilities, according to Ritchie Blackmore
Eddie Van Halen was one of greatest guitar players to ever live, but surprisingly, he wasn’t always overly confident about his chops.
In a recent interview, Deep Purple legend Ritchie Blackmore recalls his interactions with the late guitar icon, recalling his “humble” and somewhat socially reserved nature.
“[He was] very humble, almost too humble,” Blackmore says [via Guitar Player]. “He would often come backstage at our shows and go, ‘You don’t want to talk to me, because I’m nobody,’ and I could never understand why he would say that. He always used to underestimate himself. He basically reinvented the guitar with his hammer-on technique.”
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Blackmore goes on to explain how Eddie was “too sensitive” and turned to drinking to be social, adding that his sensitivity was why he found it difficult to relate to some of his guitar legend predecessors.
“Unfortunately for Eddie, he was too sensitive,” Blackmore continues. “And of course the business brought him down. He started drinking because he needed to drink to socialise. He was very sensitive, and I can relate to that.”
Of course, Eddie Van Halen wasn’t the only late guitar legend with a strong sense of humility; Randy Rhoads – often perhaps unfairly touted as EVH’s rival – was also known to be immensely humble despite his genre-defining guitar skills under Ozzy Osbourne.
“He was almost like Eddie Van Halen; very similar attitude, very humble, which I always appreciate when I talk to people,” Blackmore says. “There’s no reason to be conceited about music.”
Despite his humility, though, there’s no denying that Eddie Van Halen’s guitar skills changed the landscape of rock music at the time. Last month, Dokken guitarist George Lynch recalled watching Van Halen support UFO at California’s Golden West Ballroom in 1976.
“It was somewhat dramatic, because I don’t know if UFO knew what they were in for,” Lynch said. “And I love UFO – we all love UFO – but they got their ass kicked. I mean, they came up, and I don’t think they were ready for that.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Ritchie Blackmore recently made the bold claim that “most guitarists aren’t nice people”, but named one player who bucked the trend.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
