Neil Young’s opinion on Eddie Van Halen

When Neil Young began his musical career in 1963, Rock and Roll was still taking shape and preparing for its first evolution with bands like The Beatles, who were influenced not only by Rock pioneers such as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard, but also by Bob Dylan, originally a Folk musician.

Young had the chance to witness and be part of that movement, seeing the consequences of that era and those that followed, which eventually led to bands like Van Halen. Throughout his career, he spoke about many other guitar players, including Eddie Van Halen, sharing his opinion on him.

What is Neil Young’s opinion on Eddie Van Halen

Although Van Halen did not play the kind of music Neil Young is usually drawn to, he praised the late Eddie Van Halen, calling him a guitar genius. He mentioned the guitarist once when he was talking about the technical aspects of guitar playing. “First off, nobody cares if you know how to play scales.”

“Nobody gives a shit if you have good technique or not. It’s whether you have feelings that you want to express with music, that’s what counts, really. When you are able to express yourself and feel good, then you know why you’re playing. The technical aspect is absolute hogwash as far as I’m concerned. It bores me to tears. I can’t play fast. I don’t even know my scales and I know that most of the notes I play aren’t where I play them. They’re simply not there.”

Neil Young continued:

“So you can play any note you like. I think about it on another level, I don’t care about that sort of shit. On the other hand, I appreciate really great guitarists, and I’m very impressed by those metal groups with their scale guitarists. When I see that, I go ‘Holy shit, that’s really something’. Satriani and Eddie Van Halen are guitar geniuses. They are incredible musicians, at an amazing level. But it doesn’t really grab me. One note will do.”

“(Like Cinnamon Girl) That’s right: two chords. The same note on two chords. The vibrato makes each note sound different. People say it’s a one-note solo, but in my mind, every one of those notes is different. The further you go into it, the more you can hear the differences,” Neil Young said in an interview with Guitare & Claviers Magazine (France) in 1992.

Eddie said the Neil Young “Cinnamon Girl” guitar solo was one of his favorites

Although Van Halen became one of the most influential Hard Rock musicians of all time, he had a broad musical taste and revealed in an interview with Guitar World in 1993 that the guitar solo in “Cinnamon Girl” was an influence for him.

“One of my favourite solos is in ‘Cinnamon Girl’ by Neil Young. It’s a one-note solo and it just fits the song. Anyone else would have gone woraaagh and it wouldn’t have made any sense. If I’ve changed over the years, it’s that I’ve got more in tune with the song.”

“You’ve gotta decide, are you making music for people or are you doing it for yourself? Anyone who says that they’re not making music for people can kiss my ass. I dunno, maybe they should just sit home in their closets and make music. Why bother making records and trying to sell them if you’re trying to make music for yourself?”

Eddie Van Halen continued:

“These guys who claim, ‘I’m an artist and I don’t care if I make records or not…’ Well, why even bother making them? I want to sell records; I want people to enjoy what I’m doing as much as I do. And if that means I’m selling out, then I’m selling out…” Eddie Van Halen said.

When Neil Young released “Cinnamon Girl” in 1970, on the album “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere”, Eddie Van Halen was only 15 and still would take him and his brother two years, in 1972, to form Van Halen. By the time their group released their debut album in 1978, the prolific Neil Young had already released 11 studio albums as a solo act, not counting the ones with CSNY and Buffalo Springfield.

In the early 1990s, Neil Young took part in a charity golf tournament organized by Eddie Van Halen, as mentioned in the Folk Rock musician’s biography “Shakey”.

Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar performed at Neil Young’s charity shows twice. The first time was in 1985, shortly after Hagar had joined the band, replacing David Lee Roth. They appeared at Farm Aid, the annual benefit concert founded that same year by Young, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson to support American farmers. That night, Hagar performed three songs from his solo career before being joined on stage by Van Halen to play a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Rock and Roll”.

Eight years later, in 1993, Sammy Hagar once again performed at a Neil Young charity show. This time, it was at the annual Bridge School Benefit, organized by Young and his then-wife, Pegi, to support children with severe physical impairments and complex communication needs. He performed his song “The Love” and then four songs with Eddie Van Halen: “Love Walks In”, “Right Now” and “Spanish Fly/Best of Both Worlds”.

Hagar once recalled on his social media his performance. “You rarely hear people talking about Eddie Van Halen’s brilliant piano playing. This is one of my favorite ballads we wrote for 5150.”