VAN HALEN Guitarist EDDIE VAN HALEN Is Helping Bring Music Back To Schools - “It’s A Must, It Has To Be Taught”; Video
February 22, 2017, 7 years ago
Van Halen guitar legend Eddie Van Halen credits music with keeping him out of trouble - and he asks an important question: "Could you imagine a world without music?"
"It's a must," Van Halen told CNN's John Vause during an interview Tuesday. "It has to be taught."
In an era when schools are forced to cut budgets, it's often non-essential programs like music that gets the axe. A study compiled by the NAMM foundation found that kids who play instruments get better grades, have higher IQs and lower their chances of drug and alcohol abuse later in life.
Van Halen learned to play piano when he was six, formed his first band with his brother, Alex, in the 4th grade and went on to become the eighth greatest guitarist of all-time, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
"My whole life has been music," he told Vause. "I could not imagine anything else. It really hit me when I graduated high school, you sign everybody's yearbook and everybody asks you, 'So what college are you going to?' Uh... 'Hey Al, I think we better stick to what we know.'"
Read more and check out the video interview at CNN.com.
