Alex Van Halen

“I know I start to sound a little new age when I talk about this, but I don’t care because I really mean it: we’re sharing a moment in time and space with thousands of people, sometimes hundreds of thousands of people, and it’s our job to set them on fire, emotionally (and to set my drums on fire, literally), for that time. “When the people scream so hysterically for such a sustained period of time, they’re screaming for themselves,” as Dave told Rolling Stone. “Not for me. Not because Eddie is so great. But because they see themselves reflected in us.” For those few hours we are taking over a huge pack of humans: we’re blasting music into their ears, getting them dancing, dominating their emotional and physical lives, bringing them into our traveling reality, making them a part of it.”
― Alex Van Halen, Brothers: An Intimate Account of Brotherhood and Rock Music

“That’s how you make art. You clear away your ego and try to shut off the thinking, calculating part of your brain. You can’t make a plan to touch a dragon’s tail.”
― Alex Van Halen, Brothers: An Intimate Account of Brotherhood and Rock Music