A lot people don’t know about these tapes. They are gems. Great documentation about one of the most influential and fascinating talents of the last 50 years. It’s no exaggeration that EVH is one of the greatest guitarist that ever lived. His influence is immense. It’s undeniable. His talent and his humanity are all evident. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest musicians in modern history.

Another gem! I read the original but hearing the conversation is even better. Thank goodness the tapes were saved.

There is a wonderful moment during this interview where Jas asks Ed about whether there is an instrumental solo section on WACF....There KIND OF WAS on the Intro for FOOLS but its too short to really count as a piece of music & is similar to what Ed had done on the first 2 albums....& on here Ed says -'I don't care much about things on guitar which have been done already whereas most players only do what they have seen others do already. They look at the guitar as if that's all its for & don't try to think outside the box for new things'.... & then Gloriously ED goes to Jas- ' I don't just want to put on an instrumental for the sake of it....Because Eruption and Spanish Fly were kind of similar things. And what could I do THIS time ? ...what if I FIGURE OUT SOMETHING WITH THE FINGER THING WHICH IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT' ?......And true to his promise what 'New finger thing' did ED come up with within just MONTHS of this interview ?..You can can hear him playing it live at WACF gigs in Spring 1980 ? ....THE F*CKIN' MEAN STREET INTRO !!!!! ....He invented it just after Jas's interview here a year BEFORE it was put on the Fair Warning vinyl in 1981. He was playing it LIVE in 1980.....A FINGER THING TOTALLY DIFFERENT from Eruption & Spanish Fly & Even MORE inaccessible to other players to figure out than Eruption was. If guitarists were all scratching their heads at the vinyl turntable with Eruption in 1978 they were scratching their heads 10 TIMES MORE at the Mean Street intro in Spring 1981...🤔🤨...lol...With just his hands on strings thru an unmodified guitar and Amp he makes the instrument sound like NOTHING we had EVER heard before...Even HENDRIX would have been BAFFLED by it..🤔 I believe that NEVER before in the history of guitar technique has a sound submerged the technique by which its achieved ! ...Personally I don't believe modern guitarists like Vai, Thal or Eklundh have come up with anything as originally different on the guitar as the Meanstreet intro. Ron Thal once said in an interview..(quote)..'I had done all my years of Jazz theory . Then someone put on the MEANSTREET INTRO for me....THAT F*CKED MY SHIT UP.... I never realized you could be that innovative with the instrument (unquote)...With sight & sound study you have copycats on You Tube trying to copy/reproduce it but JUST IMAGINE WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO THINK UP AND INVENT SOMETHING LIKE THAT ?? .....ED was a GENIUS 😲😲😳 WASN'T HE ? ...I mean, c'mon ? ...Think about it ? 🤔😲..Its so difficult to see what influenced him & that's the HALLMARK & SIGN of Great Innovators...Its difficult or IMPOSSIBLE to tell who their influences are. Ask what influenced that intro ? ..He said for the first part the way bass players slap he applied to guitar but that wasn't with notes sounded by the Right hand. & how can ANY influence explain Ed's MAD left hand note, right hand harmonics speed octave intervals ? ...They are just CRAZY ....lol..Involving both open harmonics & relative harmonics ,,hammer/release in a tiny time frame. With just his hands on the strings he makes the guitar sound like a kind of 'ALIEN DEMENTED MACHINE'....lol ..Nobody had done that. Not even Hendrix or even Jeff Beck.

amazing i could listen to eddie for hours

I love Eddie’s accent in these days - “it’s def’rent” “it’s semple” “don’t man’chun it..”

these audio tapes are amazing to listen to! thank you so much for allowing us to hear these! Love ya Eddie ❤

Jas, Thank you for posting this. it's great to listen to these tapes. Hearing your, Eddie's and Neil's honest views of the music and musicians at that time. Eddie talking about his building of his guitars. His playing techniques. It's all good! I could see why Eddie got along with you. Thanks for standing up for Duane Allman. After I read the Pat Travers interview, I traded his Putting it Straight album for Lynyrd Skynyrd's Give Me Back My Bull3ts, best trade I ever made.

Thank you so much for these interviews. As a kid I wanted to know what his voice sounded like and to know what kind of person he was. Your interviews confirm what I suspected; he was just a good, sweet, honest dude. ❤

Wow, what Ed said about Jeff Beck was so true. He stayed relevant until his death. Crazy that he saw that back then.

This is total fly-on-the-wall conversations you know every rock star has but never gets released. I just love hearing Eddie's honest uncut opinions during the golden age of rock. I cant figure out why Eddie likes the 335 so much over say a Les Paul or SG.

Loving these. Great job man !

Thank you Jas. Your a lucky man. I’m almost 52. I remember discovering Van Halen in ‘81. This is gold.

Thank you for this legendary material!

Thank you Jas These are required for every VH Fanatic/ Stalker--- These are so priceless

Jas, these are gems! Thank you for sharing

I had this issue of GP and read this interview so many times. I loaned it to a student of mine and never saw it again lol. This is really special, thank you.

excellent Jas thanks to you, Neil, and Ed. This was amazing and I'll be listening to this many, many times!!

This is so good, thank you.

I remember reading the article and I MIGHT still have it ,but the audio is the best. A real treat, special. Great putting this out Thanks. All the best 🎆🎆🎆☮️👍

Thank you for sharing!

Another fantastic insight into the mind of the fantastic Eddie Van Halen! Thank you Jas! ❤

Thanks so very much once again Jas! It’s hilarious hearing Zloz’s unmistakeable voice in there!😂

Thank you, Jas.

Another nugget and look inside the mind of Mr Van Halen. Nice work Jas.

I'm so glad my brother got to listen to this interview. I just checked his History and before passing he saw this and the previous one. I just wish he would have lived to have heard the Parts 3, 4, and 5.

Amazing Jas!

Thank you Jas!!!

22:28 Ed made mention he used the neck plate off his 61 strat for the Frankenstrat. That has long be a supposition by many for years, and here it confirmed by his own mouth.

Thank you Jas

This absolutely fascinating. Eddie sounds the same without any amp or effects. Thats why he was so good. He’s playing with no amp and it sounds exactly the same

Ahh JOY !! ....THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS JAS .......God Bless. ❤👍👍👍👍👍

Thank you very much! 🙋🏻‍♂️

This article was a guitar Bible for me as a then 15yo guitar punk. Thanks!!

I bought a VCR in 1981 from "Best Products," (not related to today's "Best Buy") and I was the first person I knew who had one. It cost over $900 back then, and it weighed 40 pounds. LOL. I taped countless talk shows and college basketball games, and 5 years later, all 20 tapes were basically worthlesss: the video was 100% gone, and the audio was "wobbly" and didn't really add much to it. Anyway, you should make all the words spoken by Eddie in red, for example, and all of your words in yellow. That way, we can tell exactly what's going on, because both of your voices sound somewhat alike, and a lot of the comments are about the same things. I don't know if it's too late to do that or not. I haven't heard a rock music interview that wasn't captured on film. Did Ed not want to be filmed? :D Or most likely, film hadn't really been invented for the average consumers to use, and it was just used in newscasts. Maybe you filmed all of this, but it degraded so badly that that's why there is just audio left?

Love hearing this, and Ed's cat says hi! LOL.

Hey Now Jas, your cousin Johnny Beane sent me over to your video. Very Cool 🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼

2:48 Discussing ”Could this be Magic?” 7:35 Classical tapping + Noodling 9:00 28:05

Johnny Beane sent me to check out your content since I love Van Halen !

5:25 you can absolutely hear them snorting blow wow.

At 39:10 he does the mental gymnastics required to justify buying two bursts. 😂 Priceless

💚Thanx 😎

I remember reading this actual interview back then in guitar player. "You're not going to print this are you??" (Eddie) 😆. Yes, Blackmore is an asshole, along with Derringer, Sholtz and Travers isnt any good either! Hahaha, good stuff 👍. Thanks Jas, can't wait for #4!

Even more mind blowing than the first two, please tell me there’s more…😎🙏🏻

15:20 you're not going to print any of this... 🤣 When folks spoke freely. So refreshing. 24:20 hates interviews.

Yahoooo!!

Id love to hear the story of what became of Ed's 59 LP

So "Red Zone," not "Act Like It Hurts." They always said ALIH was the working title to "Growth."

🤟🤟

Is that a CAT at 26:31 ?? lolol arr xx😺

JOHNNY BEANE SENT ME

Thinking 3/4 size 335. Would Eddie play a 336 or a 339?

They were just getting to the good part about the Franky also did not know that the star guitar was a charvel body

Jas said he played the Frankenstrat here. Does anyone know what it looked like at this point? Still B&W? It seems to have been hidden during '79 & '80, re-emerging red for the '81 FW tour, but I've always been curious when exactly that transformation took place, & what triggered it.

Also...I wonder if Mick Jones knew Eddie thought Foreigner kinda sucked by the time he helped produce "5150". Or maybe those 80s wedding songs turned Ed around? I love the pre-internet "don't print this" get outta jail card. I miss those days.

Zlozower tries to talk like DLR

Microwaving guitar strings? Wouldn't that arc n spark and cause problems?

Hey your cousin Johnny sent me

Ed was incredulous on the accusation that Dwayne Allman was playing out of tune on Layla. The greatness of EVH is that he has perfect pitch, meaning, he can hear all the notes on the keyboard, distinctively. So if EVH can't believe someone would say Layla was out of tune, means it was in tune.

Did you interview Randy Rhoads?

At one point you hear Neil chime in, saying that Eddie has "an interview coming up with (Guitar) Player". Was Neil Ed's pseudo-agent or did he just know that because he was going to be shooting photos for it?

Refretted the necks, doubt it

Did He say the Destroyer became the two headed Snake Guitar ?

I hear scraping and snorting...hmmm

Guess it's a good thing Joe Perry went back to Aerosmith...instead of washing out 43 years ago lol. Good call, gents!

Going to listen to classical music? Going to play something classical? HMMMMM, sound familiar? Who was trying to copy who??? Lol

snort snort