#lay

Would I lay down my life to save my brother? No, but I would to save two brothers or eight cousins. ↗

— John B. S. Haldane

#brothers #cousins #down #eight #i

If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you'll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you'll get to where you want to be. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#eventually #famous #get #just #just be

A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I'm very brutal on my instruments, but not all the time. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#connected #emotionally #extension #guitar #i

The stainless-steel frets were a major breakthrough, because of the amount of playing and bending that I do. I have to get my guitars refretted every couple of months. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#because #bending #breakthrough #couple #every

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#covered #dancing #david #doing #else

Everything I did is because I wanted to do it. If I weren't playing this arena, if I were playing a club, I'd still be doing it because that's what I want to do. I love playing the guitar. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#because #club #did #doing #everything

'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' took a year to record; that's why the playing on it might sound somewhat labored. 'Balance,' on the other hand, was written and recorded in only four months, so the whole process was quicker and more immediate. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#carnal #four #hand #immediate #knowledge

I can't read music. Instead, I'd do stuff inside the piano, do harmonics and all kinds of crazy things. They used to put me in these annual piano contests down at Long Beach City College, and two years in a row, I won first prize - out of like 5,000 kids! The judges were like, 'Very interesting interpretation!' I thought I was playing it right. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#beach #city #college #contests #crazy

I started doing all kinds of weird stuff on the guitar, which became part of my playing. I started doing harmonics and tapping on the guitar and pulling off strings and doing all this weird stuff that no one had ever done before. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#before #doing #done #ever #guitar

Obviously you have to have rhythm. If you have rhythm, then you can play anything you need. If you have rhythm and you love music, then play and play and play until you get to where you want to get. If you can pay the rent, great. If you can't, then you'd better be having fun. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#better #fun #get #great #having