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Eddie Van Halen’s opinion on Joe Perry
When Van Halen released their self-titled debut album in 1978, the course of guitar playing changed forever thanks to the incredible technique and talent of guitarist Eddie Van Halen. He expanded the horizons of the instrument, especially for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal musicians who were deeply inspired by his music.
He also impressed his peers who were already famous at the time and regarded as some of the greatest guitar players in the world, something that had also happened with Hendrix. Over the decades the late musician spoke about many other guitarists, sharing his thoughts on their music. One of them was Aerosmith co-founder and guitarist Joe Perry.
What was Eddie Van Halen's opinion on Joe Perry
"(When I'm playing) I go for a vibe, I guess. Kind of like Joe Perry from Aerosmith. He's such a vibe player, you know? I love that kind of stuff. I'm not saying I play like him or we are similar but I just kind of go for a vibe (when playing). If it works with the song then I'm home, you know," Eddie Van Halen told Jas Obrecht in 1991 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Eddie admired Aerosmith, Perry's guitar playing and had the chance to become a friend of the members of the band. He even posted a photo with Perry and Steven Tyler during one of Van Halen's final tours, when they played at the same festival. However, in the early days of Van Halen's career, Eddie held on to some resentment from an encounter with Joe Perry that he did not enjoy.
At first Eddie Van Halen felt Joe Perry didn’t like him
When Van Halen released their groundbreaking self-titled debut album in 1978, the whole Rock community was with their jaws on the ground impressed by Eddie's incredible technique. The musician had the chance to meet many artists he admired backstage during the tour to promote the record and one of them was Joe Perry. But their first encounter didn't really pleased Eddie, as he told Jas Obrecht in 1982.
“There’s one thing that bothered me so much in the very beginning, in ’78, our first tour. (Was) how people like Joe Perry and other guitarists would just give me the shaft with their eyes. Wouldn’t say hello. Wouldn’t be nice. No nothing. I’m not that way.”
“I don’t give a fuck if I’m playing a Holiday Inn lounge, I enjoy playing. But I can’t stand to see a person with Allan’s (Holdsworth) talent, because of mismanagement and people fucking him around. You know, he was ready to sell his guitar and everything and work in a factory. And that is fucking sickening. So I just think about people like Joe Perry or Ritchie Blackmore, who all hate my guts anyway. They wouldn’t go out of their way to help anybody ’cause they would feel threatened.”
“Hey, the way I look at it is I wish there were more people that were innovative so I would have somebody to copy licks from. It might sound a little ego’d-out. But there are very few guitarists that I can listen that make turn my head and go, “Whoa! How did he do that?” And Allan is about the only one,” Eddie Van Halen said.
Joe Perry actually liked Eddie and praised him many times
https://youtu.be/dacZjjkUFx8?si=SKvJzjFG9YyQiFt2
Although that first impression wasn't good, they had the chance to meet each other better over the decades and there was no bad blood between them. Perry even praised Eddie multiple times, saying he was influenced by the band when he first left Aerosmith and also stating that the musician reinvented guitar playing.
“Eddie’s playing was just phenomenal. He took everything that he’d heard and put his own stamp on it. I thought ‘Oh my god, this is great!’. There were a lot of things he did where I was scratching my head and wondering how he did it. Little tricks and things.”
“I was blown away by what he was doing. Eddie came along like a breath of fresh air. It was fresh and hard, and I just felt this was the start of something new. It was kind of like when you first heard Nirvana or Sex Pistols. Eddie’s playing was revolutionary. Eddie is a gifted, natural talent. He’s unstoppable. A musician like that comes along once in a decade or two, if you’re lucky. He reinvented guitar playing,” Joe Perry told Van Halen News Desk in 2013.
One harsh thing that Perry said about Van Halen was that according to him, Aerosmith was not from the "old Van Halen school, that has a shitty band on first (as opening act so that) more people spend more time at the t-shirt desk,” he told Music Radar.The post Eddie Van Halen’s opinion on Joe Perry appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.
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