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.

The name Van Halen the family legacy is going to go on long after I'm gone.

You know most people they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds the Van Halen family.

I liked a lot of the things other people liked - Jimi Hendrix The Beatles Van Halen AC/DC - but if I compared it to my dad's music there just seemed to be elements missing.

On 'Van Halen ' I was a young punk and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning ' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.