Remember the theory EVH just didn't pay attention to Rhoads?

[Chubtone]

We've had this discussion on here several times before about some of the less than flattering things Eddie said about Randy after Rhoads passed away. With EVH saying that Randy really hadn't done anything that Eddie hadn't already done before him. And this is all in good fun and speculation but here is a story from the Randy Rhoads Biography by Andrew Klein. Makes it seem like maybe Eddie was up on what Randy was doing.

"When Randy was home on break from the Ozzy tour, he decided to drive to his local music store to buy some classical albums. Randy said that when he walked into the record store, Eddie Van Halen was standing on line at the register purchasing the Diary of a Madman album."

 

[War Admiral]

Yeah I just read a few quotes from a link on Facebook...I think Eddie was a little full of himself back then. The time when Randy asked about how he kept his non locking whammy bar in tune....he refused to answer...sorry to say but I think Eddie was kind of a prick. Read a few of the other quotes and this seems to be the case. Randy seemed to be the humbled one where as Eddie...well you know

 

[Chubtone]

Yeah I just read a few quotes from a link on Facebook...I think Eddie was a little full of himself back then. The time when Randy asked about how he kept his non locking whammy bar in tune....he refused to answer...sorry to say but I think Eddie was kind of a prick. Read a few of the other quotes and this seems to be the case. Randy seemed to be the humbled one where as Eddie...well you know

The thing about the whammy bar that I had read was the Eddie said that he learned the trick on keeping the whammy bar in tune from Jeff Beck. That Beck had showed him directly and then Eddie was too good to share what Beck had taught him with Randy. Pretty funny actually. I can understand Eddie not wanting to show that trick though. But Beck had shown him.....

 

[yngzaklynch]

Any way you slice it... two of the most important rock guitar players to exist!

 

[mdc1mdc11]

not surprising, back in the early 90's, EVH did a few columns in GW around the For Unlawful period in which he broke down a few of the tunes. In one of those columns he proudly claims that he does not normally show people what he does. Kind of slap in the face...like "you are not worthy of this information". I guess quite a few of these guys are paranoid and insecure. Life progresses and somebody always comes along that is miles better than you, I'll bet it was a humbling experience when EVH met and watched Holdsworth play up close.

 

[Chubtone]

Well, you have to keep in mind how mad Eddie must have been after Paul Gilbert stole his power drill thing.......

 

[thiswaythatway]

Did you guys remember the stuff Yngwie said about everyone when he was getting known, including Eddie? If I can find the magazine I'll scan some of it.

What about George Lynch always claiming he didn't know theory, didn't know what notes he was playing, didn't know what chords he was playing. Yeah, Ok!

 

[ChadVanHalen]

Did you guys remember the stuff Yngwie said about everyone when he was getting known, including Eddie? If I can find the magazine I'll scan some of it.

What about George Lynch always claiming he didn't know theory, didn't know what notes he was playing, didn't know what chords he was playing. Yeah, Ok!

I remember hearing a story where Yngwie said hi to Eddie at a party once, Eddie was being a prick and told him to fuck off, Yngwie yelled back at him and said "Ey noo fook yoou" and did the Eruption bit with his teeth

One of the many folk tales of 80's guitarist

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I can believe it.

 

[Anonymous]

We've had this discussion on here several times before about some of the less than flattering things Eddie said about Randy after Rhoads passed away. With EVH saying that Randy really hadn't done anything that Eddie hadn't already done before him. And this is all in good fun and speculation but here is a story from the Randy Rhoads Biography by Andrew Klein. Makes it seem like maybe Eddie was up on what Randy was doing.

"When Randy was home on break from the Ozzy tour, he decided to drive to his local music store to buy some classical albums. Randy said that when he walked into the record store, Eddie Van Halen was standing on line at the register purchasing the Diary of a Madman album."

Ya know what would have been a cool story? If Ed had turned around and seen Randy and gone, "Hey check it out, man! I'm picking up the new album… Heard a couple of songs on the radio that were cool and I'm dying to hear the whole thing. Great work, brother!"

So disappointing that the whole "gunslinger" mentality that was prevalent in LA at the time created this negativity between the players - the whole, "that guy sucks and I'm better" crap...

On another note, even if this is true, you certainly don't hear any Rhoads subsequently in Ed's playing, so either, he couldn't cop Randy's thing or he just wanted to hear what Oz and Randy were up to…

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

I remember hearing a story where Yngwie said hi to Eddie at a party once, Eddie was being a prick and told him to fuck off, Yngwie yelled back at him and said "Ey noo fook yoou" and did the Eruption bit with his teeth

Yeah, I'm gonna say that one is pure fantasy, but it is legend…

Steve

 

[thiswaythatway]

Did you guys remember the stuff Yngwie said about everyone when he was getting known, including Eddie? If I can find the magazine I'll scan some of it.

What about George Lynch always claiming he didn't know theory, didn't know what notes he was playing, didn't know what chords he was playing. Yeah, Ok!

I remember hearing a story where Yngwie said hi to Eddie at a party once, Eddie was being a prick and told him to fuck off, Yngwie yelled back at him and said "Ey noo fook yoou" and did the Eruption bit with his teeth

One of the many folk tales of 80's guitarist

I never read that. But Yngwie said the Eddie always avoided him, either at NAMM or where ever else. Yngwie was a huge dick in the 80's though, he basically shit on everyone.

 

[Stramm8]

We've had this discussion on here several times before about some of the less than flattering things Eddie said about Randy after Rhoads passed away. With EVH saying that Randy really hadn't done anything that Eddie hadn't already done before him. And this is all in good fun and speculation but here is a story from the Randy Rhoads Biography by Andrew Klein. Makes it seem like maybe Eddie was up on what Randy was doing.

"When Randy was home on break from the Ozzy tour, he decided to drive to his local music store to buy some classical albums. Randy said that when he walked into the record store, Eddie Van Halen was standing on line at the register purchasing the Diary of a Madman album."

So in 1982 at the height of his career, eddie van halen goes to a record store (at the exact same time and location as RR goes to) to buy an Ozzy record presumably because he really needs to hear what RR was doing? Couldn't he have sent Valerie out to pick it up?

Even if it's true, so what? He may have been paying attention to him but how concerned was he with him? In the words of Hilary Clinton "at this point, what does it really matter"

 

[Meathead]

Any way you slice it... two of the most important rock guitar players to exist!

Agreed. In the 80's they both were my heros. Eddie has left us with more body of work to appreciate. I wish Randy had a chance to do more (with a better engineer getting his tones to tape).

BTW I don't see the competition between the two. They were both very different players.

 

[Stramm8]

Yeah I just read a few quotes from a link on Facebook...I think Eddie was a little full of himself back then. The time when Randy asked about how he kept his non locking whammy bar in tune....he refused to answer...sorry to say but I think Eddie was kind of a prick. Read a few of the other quotes and this seems to be the case. Randy seemed to be the humbled one where as Eddie...well you know

If this story took place back in the club days, why would he tell him? I understand the idea of competition has slowly been bred out of males over the years but there are some of us that have not succumb to their efforts. I am one of 20 sales rep in my company and if I am sitting at number 1 in the rankings and the number 2 rep asks me "what's your secret", I'm going to tell him to piss off.

If the music/guitar scene was as competitive as everyone says it was back in the day, then evh was protecting his competitive advantage. And if he was a prick about it, oh well. There's an old saying, nice guys finish last. From my experience, it's true.

Besides, he eventually went into great detail about how he kept the bar in tune during a very early interview.

 

[ChadVanHalen]

Yeah I just read a few quotes from a link on Facebook...I think Eddie was a little full of himself back then. The time when Randy asked about how he kept his non locking whammy bar in tune....he refused to answer...sorry to say but I think Eddie was kind of a prick. Read a few of the other quotes and this seems to be the case. Randy seemed to be the humbled one where as Eddie...well you know

If this story took place back in the club days, why would he tell him? I understand the idea of competition has slowly been bred out of males over the years but there are some of us that have not succumb to their efforts. I am one of 20 sales rep in my company and if I am sitting at number 1 in the rankings and the number 2 rep asks me "what's your secret", I'm going to tell him to piss off.

If the music/guitar scene was as competitive as everyone says it was back in the day, then evh was protecting his competitive advantage. And if he was a prick about it, oh well. There's an old saying, nice guys finish last. From my experience, it's true.

Besides, he eventually went into great detail about how he kept the bar in tune during a very early interview.

Dave told Eddie to turn around when he was doing his thing, DiAnno told Murray to turn around during the natural harmonic slide during Killers...

Before the internet nobody wanted anyone to copy them... Now YouTube is full of peeps doing note for note recreations of players...

 

[squank]

Yeah I just read a few quotes from a link on Facebook...I think Eddie was a little full of himself back then. The time when Randy asked about how he kept his non locking whammy bar in tune....he refused to answer...sorry to say but I think Eddie was kind of a prick. Read a few of the other quotes and this seems to be the case. Randy seemed to be the humbled one where as Eddie...well you know

The thing about the whammy bar that I had read was the Eddie said that he learned the trick on keeping the whammy bar in tune from Jeff Beck. That Beck had showed him directly and then Eddie was too good to share what Beck had taught him with Randy. Pretty funny actually. I can understand Eddie not wanting to show that trick though. But Beck had shown him.....

That kind of behavior was just hard wired in Eddie...he was very insecure.

Back in the day, while playing the LA clubs, he'd turn away from the audience while fingertapping so they couldn't see what he was doing. He admitted back then that he didn't want anyone to cop his trick or his licks.

 

[shredi knight]

After a lot of Googling, I finally found this quote I remembered from a 1987 Guitar World interview with Yngwie where he talks about Van Halen. This might be what ChadVanHalen and danyeo were referring to:



....On the contrary, I read that Edward Van Halen is one of the nicest dudes in the world. I was looking forward to meeting him and hopefully becoming good friends with him. Whenever I'm somewhere that he happens to be, I ask someone to relay a message, saying that I was around and that I would love to meet him. But I still haven't met the guy--he seems to be hiding from me and suddenly disappears whenever he finds out I happen to be around.

It's a very sad and totally unnecessary situation. I've always respected him and I think he's a great guitar player--he's probably inspired more people to play guitar than Hendrix did. The bottom line is: he's got nothing to worry about. The impression I'm getting is that he's feeling threatened by me, but I may be totally wrong. If I were to become extremely famous and everyone started calling me the guitar hero, that would not delete what he is and what he's accomplished. Just because Van Halen has been called the new guitar hero, that didn't automatically diminish what Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page accomplished.

When I heard the first Van Halen album, I couldn't believe how great the guitar playing was. And when I heard that album, it was at a point when I didn't like any of the new players. I mean, he totally changed the whole guitar field. And he's still as great now as he's ever been. I would love to jam with him.


That would be interesting.


It would probably be great fun, too. I've never spent any time making a list of who is bigger, better or faster among guitar players, but I know it's a popular thing to do. I never compare anybody to anybody. I mean, everybody has their quality and value as a performer and a musician. Comparing one guitarist to another means very little to me. I just happen to be a guitar player. I admire musicians and composers--I don't care what instrument they're playing.






Also from that interview (just to throw a couple more of 80's guitarist into the mix



Do you like any of the newer guitarists who've hit the scene?


There's two guitarists that I think are real good--George Lynch and that guy in Ratt, Warren DeMartini. They probably think I say bad stuff about them, but I really like some of the things they've played.



Yngiwe must had been in a good mood/sober that day.




Here's the whole interview for those interested:

http://www.yngwiemalmsteen.com/interviews/1987.html

 

[Zap]

I would much rather listen to Randy...

 

[Chubtone]

if I am sitting at number 1 in the rankings and the number 2 rep asks me "what's your secret", I'm going to tell him to piss off.

I hear you. Eddie was #1 in the rankings and Rhoads was #2. So what number in the rankings was Jeff Beck who was gracious and secure enough to teach the technique to Eddie? That's kind of the whole point. Eddie made a big deal to name drop that Jeff Beck himself had taught Eddie what was up with keeping the trem in tune and then said he couldn't tell Randy how he did it. I think that's funny AND that is exactly how I was at their age. I wouldn't have told Randy squat either.