Eddie began by explaining the inspiration behind his home studio, 5150. "When we started work on 1984, I wanted to show [producer] Ted [Templeman] that we could make a great record without any cover tunes and do it our way," he says. "[Engineer] Donn [Landee] and I proceeded to figure out how to build a recording studio. I did not initially set out to build a full-blown studio. I just wanted a better place to put my music together so I could show it to the guys. I never imagined that it would turn into what it did until we started building it."

The guitarist's need for home studio space was prompted by a couple of issues. "I used to have a back room in my house where I set up a little studio with a Tascam four-track recorder to demo songs," Eddie explains. "I really wanted to record demos that sounded more professional than what I was doing. I used to spend so much time getting sounds and writing. I have a tape of me playing in the living room at five A.M., and you can hear Valerie [Bertinelli, Ed's ex-wife] come in and yell that she's heard enough of that song. That was another reason why I built the studio."