Progressive music legend Steven Wilson was recently interviewer by FaceCulture. The interview veered into the topic of Eddie Van Halen's passing, and how Wilson felt about his legacy. The first part of Wilson's answer was basically that he wasn't a fan of shred but still acknowledged Eddie's impact on the world. Then for some reason, Wilson just kept going off on how vile he thinks shred is, which probably wasn't the place to do so.
“Honestly, it didn’t, because I was never a fan. I know he’s an extraordinary musician, and it’s always sad when an extraordinary artist dies, [but] I was never a fan of the so-called shredder mentality. And I think in many ways, he was the father of that whole kind of movement.
“I never understood that ‘playing as fast as you can’ thing. And I know that wasn’t all he did — I know he was a more flexible musician than that — but I think that the legacy that he has, Eddie Van Halen, is in creating the shredder phenomenon, which is something so vile to me. That kind of idea that you play music almost like you’re playing an Olympic sport is kind of anathema to my kind of ideas on creativity and music.”
Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen saw the interview and was bummed, but added that he got what Wilson was saying. He also added that he's a fan of Wilson's work with Porcupine Tree.
"Damn this bums me out hard. Been a huge fan of his for years. Deadwing is one of my favorite albums of all time."
"Although… the title is a little too clickbait-y, because what he said really wasn’t that rude."
Now Wilson has taken to Twitter to apologize, saying he meant to disrespect.
“Dear @WolfVanHalen, apologies, no disrespect was meant to your father, an extraordinary musician.
“I personally never owned any @VanHalen records and didn’t ever get into the style of playing, but he was clearly an incredible innovator. So when asked about his passing I couldn’t honestly say I was affected deeply by it, at least not in the way that my heroes Bowie or Prince’s passing had affected me.
“This statement was given in honest humility. Forgive me for any offence unintentionally given, and I offer my deepest condolences.”
Wolfgang, of course, accepted the apology.
“Incredibly kind of you to say, @StevenWilsonHQ. I meant no ill will in my previous tweets. As I said, the internet was exacerbating what you had said, as the internet tends to do. Still very kind of you. Be well, friend ✌️”
So yeah, maybe the Internet blew this one out of proportion a bit.
