The three huge bands Eddie Van Halen had never heard of
There is plenty to be said about the legend that was Eddie Van Halen, what he accomplished in music and the legacy that he left behind. Van Halen was responsible for the revolution of rock music, making shredding mainstream and creating a style of play that new guitarists aspire to replicate.
However, despite being considered one of the most influential musicians throughout the history of rock, Eddie Van Halen also had his quirks. Some of these we can speculate over, such as how he might have folded his socks or interesting eating habits, but there’s one that we know for a cold hard fact, and it’s the most bizarre of them all. Eddie Van Halen didn’t listen to music.
When you speak to anybody who is a dominating voice in the world of music, they will have a list of influences longer than their arm, but Eddie Van Halen was the opposite. His innovative playing style and sound development will have resulted from his disconnect from what was already out there. It’s no surprise he could create something that sounded new; he had no idea what was old.
During an interview, Van Halen stated that he didn’t listen to music he wasn’t actively partaking in. He knew one Ozzy Osbourne song that Randy Rhodes was playing on, but that was about it. The guitarist didn’t seem to think this revelation was strange and merely pointed out that his love for cars trumps his love for sound. “I don’t listen to anything… I prefer the sound of the motor, does that make me an asshole?”
Because of his reluctance to listen to music, there are three significant bands that he had never even heard of. These were Radiohead, Metallica and Guns ‘N’ Roses. It’s surprising, given that many of the musicians whose work he isn’t familiar with likely look up to him as one of their heroes.
Does it make Van Halen an asshole? No, not really. Everybody has their interests, and in the same way that listening to music might not be the passion of one of your podcast-loving co-workers, neither was it his. What makes the revelation so much more interesting than the average person is that he was such a dominating force in music; it wasn’t out of pocket to expect he was passionate about listening to it.
Realistically, we should be grateful for his disinterest. When Eddie Van Halen burst onto the scene with side-splitting solos and an attitude towards up-tempo rock and roll that the world had never seen, it came from a place of pure creativity. He hadn’t been influenced by any of the other big artists at the time and instead could focus on the kind of thing that he thought was interesting.
