How Eddie Van Halen kept his unique guitar technique a secret: “Turn your back to the audience”
When Van Halen first emerged in the hard rock and heavy metal world during the 1970s, everyone wanted to know the secrets behind how Eddie Van Halen got his unique sound.
What he was showcasing to the world seemed truly unique, and his finger-tapping techniques and frenetic ways of busting out a flurry of notes within seconds used to dazzle audiences and professionals alike. Not since Jimi Hendrix in the previous decade had a guitarist entered the mainstream with such an individualistic flair for the instrument, and now people were worshipping the work of the Dutch-born guitar maestro wholeheartedly.
However, just as it became apparent that people were desperate to learn more about his techniques, his bandmates were becoming increasingly protective of it being out in the open, and were actively urging him to be more precious when it came to letting the world know about how he played his instrument, for the fear that someone might try and copy him and render his abilities less of a phenomenon.
The band hadn’t even been in existence for long when it reached the point where people were gathering outside their rehearsal space and trying to listen in on what Eddie was doing, and this sparked concern from frontman David Lee Roth. Adamant that Van Halen should keep up a sense of mystery about his methods, he decided to take action in perhaps the most ludicrous way possible.
Van Halen’s bassist, Michael Anthony, would go on to speak about this during an interview on the Get on the Bus podcast in 2025, and said that the frenzy that surrounded his bandmate’s abilities became too much for them to handle without telling him to be more shielded. After explaining how people in the neighbourhood had gathered at the studio doors, he went on to recount an experience that the band had while supporting UFO, which was when their plan of action to hide Van Halen’s talents from view came into practice.
“We played a place called the Golden West Ballroom in Norwalk, California, and that was one place where we could play original stuff,” Anthony recalled. “I think that was one of the biggest shows we ever did. It held about 1,500 to 2,000 people.” While performing to an audience of this size in the mid-1970s would have been a fantastic way of exposing themselves to a wider range of people, they still recognised that that was potentially 2,000 people who could steal Van Halen’s guitar technique.
“When Ed would play a solo,” Anthony continued, “Dave would tell him, ‘Turn your back to the audience, dude, because you got this thing, and you don’t want everybody to see it.’” It may seem ridiculous to think that someone whose stage presence was as electrifying as Eddie Van Halen’s was prevented from being showcased on the grounds that they didn’t want to share his trade secrets, but considering the Van Halen himself even admits to having stolen his hammering technique from Genesis’ Steve Hackett, perhaps he shouldn’t have been so precious about it.
