It's always a Catch-22 situation. They hate you if you're the same, and they hate you if you're different.

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

I went to the zoo one day and saw a chimp playing with a beat-up acoustic guitar in a way I had never seen before. Instead of using the pick the chimp was banging the neck and tapping it with its fingers. I knew the chimp was on to something so I practiced this new technique in my room for hours until I'd perfected it.

I destroyed a lot of guitars trying to get them to do what I wanted, but I learned something from every guitar I tore apart, and discovered even more things. Things like if the string is not straight from the bridge saddle to the nut, you're going to have friction.

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

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

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.