“David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.”
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I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland.
On 'Van Halen, ' I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning, ' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.
The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone.
'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' took a year to record that's why the playing on it might sound somewhat labored. 'Balance, ' on the other hand, was written and recorded in only four months, so the whole process was quicker and more immediate.