Legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen conducted a rare interview with David Curcurito from Esquire Magazine for the May 2012 issue which hit newsstands this week. Check out the magazine cover below. A few excerpts follow courtesy of the Van Halen News Desk.

Esquire: Eddie Van Halen should never have set foot on a stage. He’s never really talked about it, but this album is the first album he recorded sober, and this tour is the first tour that he will fully remember. For thirty-five years his nerves just paralyzed him, and the bottle was his only cure.

Van Halen: "It’s funny, I was doing a little bit of thinking why I’m always nervous, especially during interviews, because I rarely do interviews. And for one, a lot of people, just when I was growing up in school, people thought I was an asshole, because I didn’t have much to say, you know what I mean? You know, the quiet guy. And it’s just because I was shy. The funny thing is, about the whole alcoholism thing: It wasn’t really the partying. It was like — I don’t mean to blame my dad, but when I started playing in front of people, I’d get so damn nervous. I asked him, 'Dad, how do you do it?' That’s when he handed me the cigarette and the drink. And I go, Oh, this is good! It works! For so long, it really did work. And I certainly didn’t do it to party. I would do blow and I would drink, and then I would go to my room and write music."

Esquire: When Wolfgang was twelve years old, Alex and Ed were working together in the studio. Ed had hung a rug up over the studio window so his brother couldn’t see who was playing bass with him. Wolf came along and his father quietly told him to pick up the bass and play along with him. And he did, flawlessly. When the song was through, Alex, knowing his brother obviously wasn’t playing both guitars, said, 'Who was that?' A little voice comes over the console. 'Hi, Uncle Al. It’s me, Wolfie.'

Van Halen: "I mean, it’s kind of like learning how to ride a bicycle, I guess. You kind of coach him and before you know it, he’s on his own. We were sitting there, and we’re like, 'We need a bass player. You feel like playing bass?' And before you know it, he’s in the band. I didn’t really give him — I didn’t really ask him, What do you want to do in life? You know? Just like my father didn’t, either. I just said, 'Why don’t you play bass?' 'Well, okay.' 'Hey, Wolf, you wanna go on tour with us?' 'Yeah, sure, why not?' He blows my fuckin’ mind, man. We never knew where it would end up."

Read the entire article at the Van Halen News Desk.