Legendary Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen recently shared an audio clip from his upcoming book Brothers. This excerpt, available on Spotify, reveals deep thoughts about his relationship with his brother Eddie Van Halen, as well as what made the latter so exceptional.
An unwavering brotherly bond
In this excerpt, Alex Van Halen expresses how essential his brother Eddie has been in his life. He describes their relationship marked by arguments, but above all by unconditional love: “Without my brother, I wouldn’t be. We argued, a lot – we even argued about agreeing. But there was a connection and an unconditional love that few people are lucky enough to experience in their lifetime.”
Music, according to Alex, was at the heart of their sibling relationship: “Music was our heart and soul. This is what we did, this is what we loved, and this is what brought us as close as two brothers can be.”
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A unique talent of its kind
Although the world has often referred to Eddie Van Halen as “best guitarist in the world”Alex thinks that this title does not fully reflect his brother’s uniqueness. He explains: “The greatest guitarist in the world, that’s what everyone says. It’s a bit of a tricky title. You didn’t like it. Saying you are the best implies that there are many others like you. But there is only one Edward Van Halen.”
Alex emphasizes that what made Eddie unique was more than his riffs or his tapping technique. It was the depth and emotion he infused into his music: “You could play a single note and it sounded different, unique. Miles Davis said that it’s not the notes that count, but the intention. It’s this intangible essence that makes the difference between one sound and another.”
Innate creativity
Alex remembers the first time Eddie played a guitar, which actually belonged to Alex. From that moment, Eddie’s talent was already evident: “Long before people went crazy for your tapping, the talent was already there. Even when you played just one chord…you always said you didn’t know where it came from.”
What fascinated Alex the most was Eddie’s ability to evolve his riffs in a natural and spontaneous way: “You let the music evolve slightly in the most interesting ways, and half the time you didn’t even realize it. The music just flowed through you.”
With the release of Brothers (October 22, 2024), Alex Van Halen will pay a heartfelt and personal tribute to his brother, while giving fans a new perspective on one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
