cool Eddie interview from 1985 The Guitar Show

[TJMKID]

What a drunk cokehead racist!

After these interviews come out I'm even more amazed how Roth put up with Eddie Van Douche-Weirdo and his snooty sister for 10 years. Dave should get a medal for that shit.

"Ed Van Halen is a crummy human being without a guitar in his hands" --- DLR

[kwame k]

One of the reasons I'm always wary of meeting my hero's..........

You meet some of these guys and you end up hating them as human beings.

[LoungeMachine]

That explains why you never visit me....

[kwame k]

Yeah, that's it!

[TJMKID]

One of the reasons I'm always wary of meeting my hero's..........

You meet some of these guys and you end up hating them as human beings.

That's what always baffled me about the Hagarita Sheep --- they are quite fond of saying: "Dave's an egomaniac jerk ---- but Sammy is great because he's such a nice guy".

Who gives a fuck if he's nice? Does Sambo come over to babysit their kids? Does Pussy Nugget hang out every Sunday afternoon and watch football with them?

I couldn't give two shits and a squirt of piss if Dave is nice or not --- just make good music and deliver a kick-ass show and you earned my money and got my respect as an artist. Dave and Hagarita will never be our drinking buddies.

[jhale667]

Sometimes it's a good thing...

One of the reasons I'm always wary of meeting my hero's..........

You meet some of these guys and you end up hating them as human beings.

Fortunately, that hasn't really happened to me yet, and didn't happen the few times I dealt with Ed in the early '00s. He had a nutty professor vibe, but was always cool to me...

[DLR Bridge]

Fortunately, that hasn't really happened to me yet, and didn't happen the few times I dealt with Ed in the early '00s. He had a nutty professor vibe, but was always cool to me...

Interesting! In what capacity were your dealings?

[kwame k]

Neil Peart has said something along the same lines......that he never even imagined meeting his hero's. Never had any interest.

[kwame k]

Fortunately, that hasn't really happened to me yet, and didn't happen the few times I dealt with Ed in the early '00s. He had a nutty professor vibe, but was always cool to me...

They're just people like us.....the good, the bad and the ugly, I guess.

[jhale667]

Interesting! In what capacity were your dealings?

Was the resident guitar-parts geek in his local music store for a couple of years (which eventually lead to a couple of better-paying tech gigs before I went "private sector", lol) ... like I said, he was always cool, and seemingly very enthusiastic when it came to letting you pick his brain about gear...

[jhale667]

They're just people like us.....the good, the bad and the ugly, I guess.

Exactly. And most I've encountered would rather be treated like regular people; it's the fawning, drooling fans that give them the willies...

[Nitro Express]

it's the fawning, drooling fans that give them the willies...

[Nitro Express]

Agreed. I believe Dave tried to "wallpaper" over all of the hip surgery hulabaloo at the MTV press conference in '96, and caught hell for it. Doubt Dave ever actually said, "this night's about me, not your fucking hip". That was more like how Ed was misinterpreting Dave trying to keep Ed from sucking the air out of the press tent. Uhg. I really need to stop reliving this shit. Now I'm bringing my ass down thinking about it. Well, I just hope all is well NOW.

Someone was clearly nuts and it wasn't David Lee Roth.

[DLR Bridge]

Ed's "black guy on the phone" remark actually reminds me of a funny story if anyone's interested, it goes a lil' somethin' like this...

Way back in January of 1999, I was an Assistant Manager in Training with a retail picture framing chain. A couple of other AMTs and I had to visit our home office in Stamford CT with our overbearing, no-it-all GM. The whole car ride up, he had been "mentoring" us on how to respond to any of the big wigs questions. How we had nothing to be nervous about and how we should feel at ease discussing any issues we may have had with the company, good, bad or indifferent. He carried on about how he was going to let the call center at our supplies warehouse have it for their incompetence. Meanwhile, I'm thinking, fuck this. I ain't sayin' shit to rock the boat. I just got this job a month earlier, I forgot to shave and I already sweat through my unironed dress shirt. No need to call attention to my sorry ass. So we get there, and the conference room is just like any other high end conference room. My assigned seat was right along side my "I got this" GM. Right out of the gate, he opens up about this girl who didn't know what she was doing, who had left him on hold for ten minutes, and was rude and didn't sound very educated and bla bla bla. Meanwhile, the bigs are listening very intently and are writing all of this down when one of them asks what was the girls name. And his response was...

"I don't know, but I think she was black."

I think I heard a bead of sweat develop on his meaty forehead. Directly across the table was the only African American in the room. A sweet guy from a different store. There was no undoing that one, but in an effort to keep anyone from getting more uncomfortable, an exec asked me how long I'd been involved in framing. I think I gave a wrong answer. I will never forget that and how fucking hard we busted on him on the ride back.

Do I think that makes him and for that matter, Ed Van Halen, racists? Nope. Just ignorant. Racism is deep seeded and far worse. If what they said is racism, then all of the comedians on your Russell Simmons Def Jam Comedy Hour shows and the like that repeatedly open bits with, "white people always do this... White people always do that" are racist. I don't think they are, either. Some shit ya gotta just take with a grain o' salt.

[Diamondjimi]

In a nutshell.....