RICHIE KOTZEN On 'Swagger' In EDDIE VAN HALEN's Guitar Playing: 'It Was Very Natural'

Richie Kotzen, acclaimed guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer known for his solo career, MR. BIG, POISON and THE WINERY DOGS, recently joined Tommy London and Tor of The Mighty VH Podcast for a fascinating conversation about the deeper musical roots of VAN HALEN. During the chat, which can be seen below, Richie reflected on meeting Eddie Van Halen for the first time and shared stories about his friendship with Eddie's longtime guitar technician Zeke Clark. Together, they explore what made Eddie such a singular creative force, not only as a revolutionary guitarist, but as a songwriter whose sense of melody, groove, and emotion helped define VAN HALEN's sound. The discussion also examined VAN HALEN's often-overlooked connection to soul music, with Richie explaining why the band's true power was never just technical ability, but feel.

Speaking about the soul influence in Eddie's guitar playing, Richie said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think you touched on it a second ago when you talked about that R&B kind of feel and that thing. For me, it's a crazy thing to say, but any genre of music that doesn't have something of that in it kind of goes over my head. That's why certain genres, it doesn't even engage me if it doesn't have some sort of swing to it. And so that, I think, is the massive appeal about [Eddie's] guitar playing. Yeah, there's the innovation of the technical side and that creativity, but the feel of it is this kind of swagger and swing that you find, really, a lot of time in sax players. And I get a lot of that in my playing from that. But I think, as a rock guy, VAN HALEN influenced a lot of us, guys, like I said, that love the R&B sound but wanna play rock can gravitate towards the way Eddie played because he had that in his general feel. It was very natural."

Kotzen also stressed the importance of finding his own style as a guitar player and not spending too much time trying to copy his guitar heroes.

"When I was learning an Eddie lick, or if I listened to Yngwie [Malmsteen] and tried to learn an Yngwie lick, I would listen and get the gist of it, but I would never go down the rabbit hole far enough to really emulate it to the point where someone would say, 'Wow, that sounds just like so-and-so,'" he explained. "And I think for me personally, I think that's what gave me a creative direction and a creative voice — on the instrument, in the writing, in the singing — is the fact that, 'Okay, well, I'm gonna figure out the idea that someone's playing,' but for me, in my mind, it's a waste of time to try to emulate it perfectly. For what reason? Why would I do that? It already exists. It's already there by the person that created it. I'd like to know how they did it, but once I get an idea of how they did it, that's enough. I wanna do my own thing, and let me develop my own stuff. Maybe one day I'll do something, and someone'll wonder how did I do it, and try to figure it out. That, to me, is way more interesting."

After one of the interviewers brought up Eddie Van Halen's skills as a songwriter and asked Richie whether he ever picked up on that from the VAN HALEN material, Kotzen said: "Oh, of course… You're listening to the song.

"Today, it's a very bizarre situation," Richie continued. "It's strange. And I don't wanna say anything that's discrediting or it sounds like, 'Oh, Richie, you're just too old.' But back in the day when I was coming up, with VAN HALEN, you had [Eddie] being him and innovative and all that, in the context of great songwriting, which he was giving and doing. And there's others that are extraordinary musicians that write great songs. We can name them. Zakk Wylde [BLACK LABEL SOCIETY] is one. Nuno Bettencourt [EXTREME] is one. These are great, innovative guitar players that also can sing and can write great songs. So you have a complete picture — it's a complete musician, and there's artistic value there in the creativity. Where it has shifted into a kind of strange land is now you have gifted musicians that are actually executing at a level that's much more complex than the stuff that was happening when I was young growing up but it's completely stripped of the artistic creative value, as we would have defined it, which would be song, the craft of creating song — composition is the word that I'm searching for, that you can actually sit back and listen to the composition. 'Cause you can listen to someone improvise over changes or giant steps or whatever it is, and your mind can be blown with how quickly and efficiently and expressively one can weave through these changes. But what's missing to me with many of the folks is the stuff that was there with the names that I mentioned — Eddie and Zakk and Nuno and others. So that strikes me as very strange and unfortunate, if you're of mind of the art of making music. 'Cause if you're of mind of the art of making music, I find that very disheartening. I don't know the exact word, but I don't like it."

Last month, Kotzen surprised fans with the digital release of his newly recorded song, "Catch A Star".

Kotzen has performed on some of the biggest stages in the world since he first signed a deal with Shrapnel Records in 1988 as a guitar prodigy. He began releasing records both as a solo artist and in multi-platinum bands POISON, MR. BIG and THE WINERY DOGS. Now known also as a prolific songwriter and one half of acclaimed duo SMITH/KOTZEN with IRON MAIDEN's Adrian Smith, Richie's ever-growing back catalogue (including more than 20 solo albums) ensure that his fans around the world are constantly treated to his prodigious talent both recorded and live.