The two legendary guitarists Eddie Van Halen called “sloppy”
It was a hallmark of the classic rock generation that prominent artists were unafraid to publicly criticise each other’s work. While musicians today are more likely to offer resounding support than to disparage one another, for years, the rock star archetype included the confidence—and audacity—to tear into the abilities of their peers. One man particularly skilled at this was Eddie Van Halen.
To be fair to the late guitarist, he was more than within his rights than most to criticise others. After all, he was a bonafide guitar hero, the next in a long line of fretboard maestros who did his bit to change playing and refresh it for a new era. Although he wasn’t the first to utilise the techniques, his use of double-hand string tapping and dive-bombs – alongside his searing technical ability – gave hard rock and metal key features that are still alive and well today. He was such a force that both Ritchie Blackmore and Frank Zappa, two legends of the game who put distinct twists on the instrument, were in agreement that the Amsterdam native “reinvented the guitar”.
Van Halen’s sound wasn’t for everyone, and in time, came to represent everything wrong with the period’s music for those who subscribed to anything like the punk ethos. However, there’s no doubting his place in the annals of the six-string and its significance for its development, even if it is one of the most divisive sounds in rock.
If he was bold enough to pilfer techniques others had used before him and make them his own, Van Halen sure as hell wasn’t afraid to offer damning critiques of players who helped lay the foundations for his work. This included calling two legendary guitarists, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, “sloppy”.
Van Halen’s critique of Hendrix comes via former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg. Speaking to Ultimate Guitar in 2020, he discussed his time with Van Halen and mentioned that the ‘Eruption’ legend thought Hendrix was noticeably lackadaisical in his approach.
He said: “We didn’t really play-play, we just were there with guitars on the left. And he asked me who my favourite guitar player was. I said, ‘Well, it’s Jimi Hendrix.’ And he thought Jimi Hendrix was too sloppy; his favourite was Eric Clapton.”
As for Van Halen’s Page critique, it came straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. Despite once revealing that it was watching Led Zeppelin live that allowed him to cultivate one of his guitar trademarks in string tapping, thanks to Page playing with one hand in the air, introducing him to the approach that would produce highlights such as ‘Eruption’, elsewhere, he criticised the Englishman.
Van Halen once told Guitar World: “Jimmy Page is an excellent producer. Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II are classics. As a player, he’s very good in the studio. But I never saw him play well live. He’s very sloppy. He plays like he’s got a broken hand, and he’s two years old. But if you put out a good album and play like a two-year-old live. What’s the purpose?”.
It’s one thing to critique fellow legends, but calling someone sloppy and comparing them to a two-year-old is exactly the kind of outlandish hot take that eventually led people to turn away from this generation of musicians—skillset aside.
