“I think Clapton is brilliant. He’s the only one who moved me. The only one who made me want to play the guitar.”

I was so used to doing old blues licks with the first three fingers. When I started using my pinky and finding more spread things, that’s when I started getting my own style.

To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.

You’ve only got 12 notes and however you mix them up is your thing.

My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass.

Some people think a song without words isn’t a real song. Tell that to Beethoven and he’ll kick your ass!

If you have a great-sounding guitar that’s a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that’s the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.

You know, most people, they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds, the Van Halen family.

Actually, if I could deliberately sit down and write a pop hit, all my songs would be pop hits! Let’s put it this way. I play what I like to hear. And sometimes I like to hear something poppy, and sometimes I don’t.

I’m not a drunk anymore, but since they cut out my tongue, I sound drunk.

It’s all about sound. It’s that simple. Wireless is wireless, and it’s digital. Hopefully somewhere along the line somebody will add more ones to the zeros. When digital first started, I swear I could hear the gap between the ones and the zeros.

If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that’s a wonderful thing.

Major third complications can be overcome by lots of alcohol.

When Van Halen started out, there was no path to fame. We just played what we liked. Even today it always comes down to the simplicity of rock and roll.

I never dreamt of being a musician for my livelihood. I certainly never would have wanted to be in the business that I’m in, meaning the fame and the glory, the glitter, the rock star, the famous part.

A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that’s not right, all the strings should be off.

It makes me feel kind of weird, but obviously the Man Upstairs gave me something and it touches people, and I’m just so blessed.

I love Amy Winehouse. I’m obsessed with her, I think she’s brilliant. And Ed Sheeran is just my all-time fave.

Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans.

It’s funny, there aren’t too many musicians that also moonlight as studio engineers. There’s a few – the really brilliant ones.

And you, you’ll always be the most brilliant mystery a masterpiece of october midnight hauntings my best dressed trauma at the evening masquerade.

The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament.

There is nothing better than being in a classroom with really, really brilliant students, and opening up new worlds to them. That’s what I love doing.

To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.

To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.