Every song is like a kid. How can you have that many kids and have a favorite? Which one do I like to hang most with? Probably the one that I haven't hung most with recently.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that each creation is unique and valuable, much like children, making it difficult to choose a favorite.
Eddie Van Halen uses the metaphor of songs being like children to convey the deep connection an artist has with their creations. Just as a parent cannot have a favorite child, an artist feels a special bond with each song, but may find particular emotional resonance with those that they have not engaged with in a while. This reflects the transient nature of artistic relationships and the emotional currents that can sway an artist's preferences over time.
In practice
When discussing the creative process during a music workshop.
When I'm home on a break, I lock myself in my room and play guitar. After two or three hours, I start getting into this total meditation. It's a feeling few people experience, and that's usually when I come up with weird stuff. It just flows. I can't force myself. I don't sit down and say I've got to practice.
Music is for people. The word 'pop' is simply short for popular. It means that people like it. I'm just a normal jerk who happens to make music. As long as my brain and fingers work, I'm cool.
There's a plaque on our wall that says we've sold over 65 million albums, and I don't feel I've accomplished anything. I feel like I'm just getting started.
And if I would have taken lessons I probably wouldn't have done it, and what forced me to do all this weird stuff on the guitar was I couldn't afford effects pedals, I didn't have all this stuff when I was a kid so I just tried to squeeze all the weird noises I could out of the guitar, which brings me to building guitars.
If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you'll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you'll get to where you want to be.
Music kept me off the streets and out of trouble and gave me something that was mine that no one could take away from me.
Not only must you be an artist, must you be generous, and must you be able to see where you can help but you must also be aware. Aware of where your skills are welcomed.
Use anger to emotionalize whatever thing you intend to do in life - being a painter, a poet or a photographer
To most people who look at a mobile, it's no more than a series of flat objects that move. To a few, though, it may be poetry.
The solitude of writing is a solitude without which writing could not be produced, or would crumble, drained bloodless by the search for something else to write.
At some point, all comics have to go out and be retail salesmen doing door-to-door. And this idea of somebody who totally knows their craft having to get up for free in front of a crowd to work out some stuff they're thinking in their head, still, after as much success as you can get, is really interesting.
Has my tale turned you speechless? Come, curse me or kiss me or call me a liar. Something.
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