Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century

by Chuck Klosterman

The fundamental nature of his genius confounds logic: He is an autodidact who can play any instrument he gets his paws on (he owns an oboe, for instance), but he’s also the rare rock artist who studied music at college (both he and his brother Alex attended Pasadena Community College in the early seventies). He’s a classically trained pianist, but he can’t read music. And he insists that—had he taken proper guitar lessons—he would have never developed the innovative techniques that are now regularly taught by proper guitar instructors. His entire career has been built on astonishment and influence. The first question every rival guitarist asked upon hearing the ’78 instrumental song “Eruption” was, “How is he making those sounds?” The second tended to be, “And how can I copy it?” As a consequence, the 1980s were saturated with EVH clones, all of whom tried to prove that they, too, could hammer on the neck of their guitar with maximum dexterity. But it never really worked for anyone else. “That was a different trip,” Van Halen recalls. “It was like, ‘What the hell did I start here?’ Because [that technique] had been a part of my playing for so long, and then everybody else started doing it. I did not take it as flattery. But it ultimately didn’t matter, because I still play that way and none of those other people stayed with it.”