cool Eddie interview from 1985 The Guitar Show

[Nitro Express]

Funny. I got Vitas' autograph on a napkin somewhere. He was eating at the next table at Caesar's Palace. I can't remember the year but it was in the mid 80's sometime.

For some reason that ad makes me think of this....

[Nitro Express]

Damn Ed was stewed - his glassy eyes and juvenile attempts at humor are dead giveaways. The 'racket' comments seemed like a slam toward Kramer guitars, but I'm not sure Ed is that quick on his feet to have meant it that way. This says it was from '85 - any idea on the Roth timeline on this one? Before or after April 1st?

It was a racket. Once they got Ed's endorsement they started selling Striker's with plywood bodies and shitty frets. Awful guitars. Maybe there was some innovation and quality at Kramer before Ed signed on but after that they were just milking his endorsement and selling shit to kids who knew no better.

Where is Kramer now? Last I heard Gibson bought them and they were selling guitars mail order. It's not a name that really means much anymore and it never earned a high mark of quality with musicians in general. It was a fad.

Then invented the aluminum fork neck and distributed Floyd Rose products. Drunk Eddie signed on and they got a huge boost for awhile and that is that.

[Nitro Express]

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

Roth went out and did interviews and banged chicks while Ed and Al sat drunk in a giant pickle jar. If you could get them on stage and in the studio that's all that mattered. I doubt Dave did much socially with them. He probably went up the Amazon to avoid the fucks.

[VHscraps]

Is that Paul Hogan? Can't tell with the wig and the blurry quality ...

And now slipping further off-topic, that makes me think of another funny tennis comedy episode - when Kramer (haha! Kramer - there is a link!) became a 'ball man' at the Us Open in an episode of Seinfeld.

There's a clip on youtube (check it from 2.00), but embedding is disabled - LINK: http://youtu.be/dGo9j77Vy1E

I can embed this, though, which I've never seen (and I thought I had seen every episode):

[Nitro Express]

Undeserving talented drunk fuck heads driving the more deserving crazy is not a new concept. LOL!

[VHscraps]

Great movie - wasn't Mozart Eddie's hero? Q: So, he named his son after drunken bum Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - or after the genius musician?!

Damn, serendipity got hold of me tonight. And that, in turn, reminds of the the Amadeus promo with ... Diamond Dave (who else!) as the conductor at the beginning and the end:

[Nitro Express]

Is that Paul Hogan? Can't tell with the wig and the blurry quality ...

Yes it is. McEnhoges and Vitas Vegimitis. LOL!

[Nitro Express]

Great movie - wasn't Mozart Eddie's hero? Q: So, he named his son after drunken bum Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - or after the genius musician?!

Damn, serendipity got hold of me tonight. And that, in turn, reminds of the the Amadeus promo with ... Diamond Dave (who else!) as the conductor at the beginning and the end:

Amadeus was Ed and Val's favorite movie at the time. Ed thought he was a lot like Mozart. A talented fuck up. Ed was getting warm there.

[VHscraps]

Yes it is. McEnhoges and Vitis Vegimitis. LOL!

Used to love his comedy sketch show in the early 80s.

Got me thinking of another Aussie comedian from that time that I liked - Norman Gunston ...

[Nitro Express]

Used to love his comedy sketch show in the early 80s.

Gee I wonder why?

[SunisinuS]

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.

You Racist!

[Terry]

Ed does come off as a strange bird...since he was never really the public face of the band back in the CVH days far as televised interviews went, it was a bit weird seeing him take to the airwaves after the fracas of 1996 and seeing how he acted; for all the interviews of him I had read from 1978 to 1984, I never actually saw or heard the guy speak until after Roth left. And even most of that post-1985 stuff was limited to brief, edited snippets on MTV.

I'd agree with Nitro that Ed's best work was recorded when Templeman was producing...and when Roth was, for all intents and purposes, in charge of the p.r. aspects of the band. It's probably not a coincidence that after Roth quit and Eddie asserted himself as the leader of the band that the music got soft and predictable. Ed was at his best when he wasn't in total control.

And lesfunk is probably spot on about Ed believing all the press blowing smoke in the form of "Ed's the serious musician in the band, and Roth's clown-pop antics are holding Van Halen back from being anything other than a party rock band." Ed was a serious musician, but it wasn't until Roth left that it became clear just how much he brought to the table and how much was lost after he split. Post-Roth, Van Halen became rather ordinary.

vh rides again also hit upon something interesting...kind of funny watching that interview and thinking back to 1985 when I was still in that teen "rock stars are god-like" mentality, where I would have given almost anything to hang out with Eddie Van Halen back then...whereas seeing that stuff now, I doubt I'd want to spend 5 minutes at a meet-and-greet with the guy, much less a day with him.

I think Roth had it right when he once mentioned that Eddie was an idiot savant, and without a guitar in his hands he was a crummy human being.

[Zing!]

Yeah I remember the 'racket' poster with Ed, McEnroe, and Gerulatiwhatever very well - used to have it in a Guitar Player magazine once upon a time. But the way Ed made his remark about Kramer guitars being a racket (ie: a dishonest scheme, trick, shady business activity, etc.) it seemed he was slamming the company, the shitty guitar in his hand, and the Kramer rep sitting right next to him. I saw the poster and got the reference, but my point is Ed doesn't seem too quick on his feet - not sure he could have been very metaphorical after a 12-pack of Heinies. This had to have been right before the break-up if the timeline is right. Judging by Ed's haircut and his goofball shoes, I would have pegged this as late '85 or even '86 (man - how sad of a commentary is THAT that I know that much about one guy's hair and footwear?) And yes - the guitar was crap. I bought a Kramer just before this ad came out - pretty good quality - in fact that guitar is still played regularly by a buddy of mine - but the Strikers after that were lousy. You can tell in the interview that its a guitar that Ed would never be caught dead playing. He seems to really be believing his own press and being outrageously rude and disrespectful. I know that he's a rock star - but come on, man - it's a guitar interview about guitars and you're the guitar king of the world; have some class. CLASS, I said. Not GLASS. Of Glenlivet.

[clarathecarrot]

Ed does come off as a strange bird...
vh rides again also hit upon something interesting...kind of funny watching that interview and thinking back to 1985 when I was still in that teen "rock stars are god-like" mentality, where I would have given almost anything to hang out with Eddie Van Halen back then...whereas seeing that stuff now, I doubt I'd want to spend 5 minutes at a meet-and-greet with the guy, much less a day with him.

I think Roth had it right when he once mentioned that Eddie was an idiot savant, and without a guitar in his hands he was a crummy human being.

I just thought to myself...Maybe Ed "now" in this time of 2011 wouldn't want to be at a meet and greet with you or me as we were back in 1985.

Do you think Ed is the same young guy that you see in that vid ? Perhaps, you /me/us/fans.. would be the drunken ass with no real "comedy" one liners to throw on cue at any situation. Ed would be the completely together persons we know that we, must be, looking at us all confused.

I am not bagging on you Terry as a singular person, you are one of the best posters here at The RA,, it is just the constant berating of Ed as if he isn't human and great googilie moogilie, I would love to sit in the room with this musician and talk about the times here and gone.

I understand being pissed at the past ...but how can this shit spoken here enable anyone of you all to buy the next album .....,I'd would have found a new band to folow the exploits of long ago, if I ended up thinking they were exaclty the same every day as the worst I had seen of them.

No Harsh Terry.

[Nitro Express]

I think Roth had it right when he once mentioned that Eddie was an idiot savant, and without a guitar in his hands he was a crummy human being.

Hindsight being 20/20, Dave was spot on. I think he has been the most honest in summing up the VH situation. The brothers have screwed everyone in the band. They screwed Sam and Mike too. I have lost all respect for them.