The Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. held a special event there titled, “What It Means To Be An American” and they did a special sit down interview with Eddie Van Halen, the iconic guitarist himself.

I sat here and watched this whole 55 minute video and it was very entertaining. Eddie seems like a cool as hell guy, very humble and down to earth! Of course, the audience at this event was full of obsessive Van Halen fans.

Eddie talked about his life story as a musician. He talked about how he became a musician and how he became what he is. Eddie explained that he didn’t start playing guitar right away though. He explained that he got his start playing piano. Then he moved on to playing drums. When he found that he couldn’t play drums well and his brother Alex was of course, the better drummer than he was, that’s what inspired Eddie to switch to guitar.

This conversation is worth a listen. Eddie tells some very cool stories. Man, I wish I could sit in front of Eddie and listen to him talk. I could listen to this guy talk about music all day!

Of course, Eddie plays a little bit of guitar in this video so he can explain how he came up with the two-handed fret tapping he’s famous for. Yes, he does play a little bit of “Eruption” too!!! That EVH 5150 amp sounds fucking killer, WOAH!!! In that video, Eddie gets up to play at about 24:44 if you wanna see.

What I love about Eddie is that he takes guitar sound and tone pretty seriously. He’s an expert at guitar sound and this guy knows exactly what he wants.

I’m a long time Van Halen fan myself. Been listening to their music for years. Eddie is a guitar genius and he was one of the guitarists who inspired me to play myself.

Kev