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In a Maximum Golf Exclusive: Eddie Van Halen Discusses His Cancer For the First Time
 "I
Believe That God Doesn't Lay This on You Unless You Are
Supposed To Learn Something"
In a Maximum Golf exclusive, rock and roll legend Eddie
Van Halen discusses his cancer for the first time. In
"I8 with Eddie Van Halen" by Ron Del Barrio and Andy Meisler,
Van Halen discusses his greatest personal battle - to
fight Cancer. The following are excerpts of the story
On dealing with his cancer: "I know I'm kicking its ass
out. The way I look at it is like this, I've run too many
red lights and gotten away with it for a long time, but
it kinda caught up with me. I believe that God doesn't
lay this on you unless you're supposed to learn something.
And boy, I've learned more in the last year and a half
than I ever thought I'd learn in a lifetime. Sometimes
when things are in front of your face, you don't see them.
It seems simple, but all that really matters to me is
my son and my wife. Everything and everybody else can
pretty much kiss my ass. Even making music - which is
pretty much my life - takes a back seat to my family and
my health.
On the media attention to his cancer: "I really don't
understand it. I mean, everybody I know has been getting
calls asking what's going on with me. Guys pull up beside
me at red lights - as if I'm gonna give them an interview
at a stoplight.
"I don't know why people want to know what only my wife
and son and maybe my best friends have a right to know.
I say to everyone else, 'Look I'm doing great."
"But that is not enough to satisfy the jackals. They say,
'Everyone wants to know everything right now because you
are a famous rock star! That's crap! I'm not a rock star!
I'm a musician, a kid from Holland who knows what it looks
like from both sides of the tracks."
On sins of the past (i.e. Red Lights): "I used to get
wasted because I didn't know how to act. I was, and still
am, very uncomfortable being a so-called 'rock star.'
I would get so hammered that I would make a complete fool
out of myself. Was like 'Okay, I'm a rock star. Now what
is that?' I sure as hell didn't know - regardless of whether
I was drunk or straight. So I figured I might as well
go straight, because drunk, I was a complete idiot; straight,
at least I have the chance of being just half an idiot.
Funny thing is, after all these years, I still don't have
a clue what a 'rock star' is."
On (Van Halen) reuniting with David Lee Roth: "The last
time I spoke to or saw Dave was back in September of last
year. I played him a few tunes we bulls---ed a bit, had
some laughs, and everything seemed cool. He was even kind
enough to turn me on to his uncle, Jack Roth, a cancer
surgeon and research specialist at -coincidentally- M.D.
Anderson in Houston where I had been going once a week
for treatment.
"Everything looked pretty positive about getting together.
But before you know it, attorneys are involved. These
cats had me so beat down and confused, it made cancer
seem like a tiny zit on my ass. Everything seemed to fall
apart after these guys got involved. I mean, we used to
do it on a handshake. At this point, I have no idea what's
going on." |
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