Down the years, I have always enjoyed playing Raymond van Barneveld. There is always a frisson of excitement in the air, an edge to the contest that makes the sap rise, but it stops short of pure enmity.
I’ve heard my share of Van Halen. I never liked rock.
My wife was the first art collector in the family, and I didn’t become interested until around 1973. The first important artwork we bought was a Van Gogh drawing of two peasant houses in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
I was in a party band in the early ’80s, and we played Sabbath and Ozzy songs as well as Rush and Van Halen… all that kinds of stuff.
I think a player like Van Persie can play for every team because he’s a top player.
I’ve never really heard anybody imitating anything of mine the way they do with Edward Van Halen’s stuff.
When I was 17, my dad was teaching in the States. He hired an A-Team-style van, and we drove all over. My resounding memory of it was that we saw all these wonderful places but that my sister and I were being horrible, sulky teenagers.
In August of 2002, I survived a car accident. Although I can still see the van speeding toward us, I cannot bring to mind the crash itself – only its aftermath.
I realize that I’ve had Ian Van Dahl: ‘Castles in the Sky,’ the Ibiza jam, periodically stuck in my head for years, like years of my life. Every now and then ‘Castles in the Sky’ will just happen. Maybe that’s some sort of indication that it’s actually my favorite song of all time.
I really loved touring with my band, but it felt like we would spend a lot of time playing in empty rooms – empty clubs. We had some good successes, but it’s so physically hard to load up a van and drive all day.
If you look at most youngsters, they have worked well under Van Gaal. I had never heard of Thomas Muller at Bayern Munich before Van Gaal managed him, and he’s now one of the best players in the world.
I didn’t have many celebrity crushes, it was mainly Rangers players! I had a thing for Giovanni Van Bronckhorst. Looking back, I really don’t know why! Great player though!
Dick Van Dyke was my first idol. He’s an amazing physical comedian, like a classic clown, but also very smart and not afraid to show vulnerability.
For a long time, our only mode of travel was an Econoline van. Eleven of us, with nine sleeping in the back on two mattresses.
I just completed a tour in Europe. I played every night. This requires traveling some days for six hours in a van or a train or a car. After six weeks of that, I checked into the hotel and just fell apart.
I have a ton of respect for Fred Van Vleet.
As Laurel Van Ness it’s so much fun, and with that comes a creative outlet. You can be who you wanna be and be that particular character. I’m so thankful that Impact allows me to do that.
I saw United matches on TV as a kid in Sao Paulo. I loved watching Ruud van Nistelrooy. He was a hero for me because of the way he scored goals in all competitions.
It’s hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he’s really limited to a style and they’re locked into it.
Louis Van Gaal is a great coach. He has inspired a lot of players to give their best, shown them how to play.
When I was a kid, all the walls in my room were papered with posters portraying Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. I think working with Van Damme was a great experiment. It was awesome!
Five people in a Volkswagen station wagon without equipment. Now we tour with six people in a van.
If I could have any artist’s work on my sitting room wall it would probably be by Van Gogh or Picasso.
If you look at a building by Mies van der Rohe, it might look very simple, but up close, the sheer quality of construction, materials and thought are inspirational.
It was very difficult to succeed Bert van Marwijk because, two years before, he was second in the World Cup, and then he left a broken-up team behind – so that was much more difficult than you think.
The first Van Halen album makes Johnny Rotten out to be what he really was and still is: a hairdresser.
He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.
It’s rather splendid to think of all those great men and women who appear to have presented symptoms that allow us to describe them as bipolar. Whether it’s Hemingway, Van Gogh… Robert Schumann has been mentioned… Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath… some of them with rather grim ends.
I travel in a Ford Econoline van with a trailer. So it’s not quite so glamorous.
For a 20 year old the gap from Holland to England is massive. That’s a fact. Not all players are able to settle in directly from day one. I remember even Van Persie needed two, three years but he became Van Persie.
My dad would have me watch the shows that he liked. I watched ‘I Love Lucy.’ I watched ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.’ I watched ‘M*A*S*H’ and ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ and ‘Bob Newhart’ and ‘Taxi’ and ‘Cheers.’
I’ve been playing for aeons now, but way, way back, I remember Eddie Van Halen came out ,and I loved his playing. He was amazing. But then everyone started copying his guitars with Floyds, and I didn’t.
Flying Colors is more alternative pop with a prog edge. Think the Beatles meets U2 meets Muse and Foo Fighters. It is the opposite of Adrenaline Mob, which has more classic metal influences like Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Pantera, or Disturbed. They are completely different ends of spectrum.
I loved Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Rob Van Dam, I was a big fan of any of the big, flashy high flyers. They had that high flying, high intensity, and high impact style.
Simeone, De Boer, Van Basten – fantastic names to have worked with.
Few bands in hard rock history have been so adept at balancing the awesome and trivial as Van Halen in their prime.
I knew Townes Van Zandt a little bit.
Jimmy Van Heusen was a top security test pilot in World War II as well as being a great songwriter. He was absolutely incredible. Van Heusen inspired me to write music.
My brother Van got the computer first and showed me what it was like to edit video. I definitely credit Van with turning me onto filmmaking.
I do remember being a kid and hearing Van Halen. My dad was always playing Van Halen in the car.
The rules of game shows limit stuff so much. I remember on ‘Money From Strangers,’ being in the van – not even performing – and there was a lawyer there the entire time. ‘No, you can’t give money for that. Yes, you can give money for that. That’s a partial answer. That’s a full answer.’
Marco van Basten – I never saw him properly play but I know he was pretty good.
Nine Inch Nails was born out of Cleveland, Ohio, with me and a friend in a studio working on demos at night. Got a record deal with a small, little label, went on tour in a van, and a couple years later found that somehow we touched a nerve, and that first record resonated with a bunch of people.
I never got to train with the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart, but I am from the club where they were. I am not Dutch, but I am from a club where they both played with the same style. They’ve had really big success when they left Ajax, so I hope I can achieve the same.
The big clubs will always talk about the same names such as Ancelotti, Mourinho, and Wenger. Louis Van Gaal is always in there as well. He has his own style and is a very determined man. He knows exactly what he wants. He’s got direction, the ability and experience at big clubs such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
I no longer need a large television set in my vanity van and just go to Hotstar on my phone – it is much easier to watch everything there.
I’m a big Jeff Van Gundy fan.
It was fun while it lasted, but it never seemed real to me. I could not believe I was in Van Halen.
As a kid, I was heavily into martial arts and wanted to be the next Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.
I enjoy those physical battles and I’ve been on record saying Virgil van Dijk is the best defender in the world.
My stage name has always been ‘Armin van Buuren.’ When I really started DJ’ing professionally, I already had a few U.K. hits under my belt under the name ‘Armin’, so I couldn’t really change that anymore.
And then I went round the corner and there’s a Van Gogh portrait, and you just think, well, this is another level. A higher level, actually. I love the Sargent, but it’s not the level of Van Gogh.
If I would have ever dreamed that I wouldn’t be in Van Halen anymore and was going to have resume my solo career again, I would have never contributed anything towards my own greatest hits package.
Van Gaal is the best coach I’ve had. We’ve got a very special relationship.
Then I abandoned comics for fine art because I had some romantic vision of being like Vincent Van Gogh Jr.
When I was in Van Halen I was hitting notes that were out of my range. I never went for those registers before until Eddie pulled it out of me.
I think that Van Gogh is really the ultimate crazy artist that we all think of.
But on a regular basis, Van Jones is my jam. I would show up anywhere to talk about anything with Van. And I’m lucky enough, not only to do that on television for CNN, but traveling to do left-right debates at colleges or for groups or work associations.
