Eddie Van Halen

by Neil Zlozower

  Eddie came in and didn’t ask about money. We got two big speakers, two six-packs and just got busy. That song was designed for him. You’re not gonna write out a solo for Eddie Van Halen. Once he heard the tempo and attitude, it was all designed to bring out Eddie’s personality. I told him “I just want you to be you,” and that’s what he did. He played what he felt in two or three takes and the solo to “Beat It” was done. I was blown away. That solo belonged on that record. When it’s that natural, you’re fighting against nature if you don’t catch it. Michael was overjoyed with Eddie’s solo. He’d never recorded anything like that before. It was exciting when he nailed that solo; you just knew right away that was it. And like Eddie the person and player, it was that special.

  —Quincy Jones

  The power and virtuosity that Eddie displays on every record is staggering. His timing and his tone make him so much fun to listen to. The first time I heard VH on the radio I stood up and cheered, because I felt that Eddie was doing what so many of my generation were trying to do. He was bringing rock guitar to a new, exciting level, and doing it with musical integrity.

  —Joe Satriani

  The first time I heard Eddie Van Halen, I was freaked out. It was the track “Eruption,” and I was like WTF!?! He brought the level and stakes of rock guitar up to new heights, and it made me feel like a beginner again. In time, I figured out some of his amazing techniques and incorporated them into my solos, and even featured his hammer-on tricks during my solo spot in KISS. But the true magic of Eddie’s playing is his lyrical talent on the guitar. He makes the guitar sing! His tone and tasty vibrato, in combination with his fierce ability to play fast but in a melodic way, is why in my book, he is the most exciting guitarist in recent history.

  —Bruce Kulick

  Eddie is a truly great player, writer, and above all, an innovator in everything he does.

  I’m proud to say that he is one of my very dear friends.

  —Tony Iommi

  Edward Van Halen is an exciting guitarist to listen to, with incredible taste. He established the tapping technique that still reigns supreme, while all the others tried to catch up with him.

  —Jimmy Page

  In the 1960s, you had the first wave of real incendiary guitar pioneers like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. But when you look at that second wave in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Eddie Van Halen is the foremost guy who rewrote modern rock guitar. And to this day, people are still inspired by what he created.

  Eddie had a really massive sound, which worked so great in that heavy rock idiom. And of course with the two-hand tapping technique, Eddie created a storybook that didn’t exist. He did a lot of really interesting rhythm playing as well, playing that had intricate melodies inside his chord changes. You’d hear these little jaunts of things coming out of the chords that would be in between the vocal lines, things like “Dance the Night Away.” He was so original, what he came up with came out of his own creativity. Eddie truly wrote the book on that style of rock guitar playing.

  —Eric Johnson

  Edward Van Halen is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitarists ever. I remember watching the “Jump” video on TV when I was a kid and I was blown away by the song and the band’s energy. Then when the guitar solo came in I was floored. I immediately checked out some Van Halen albums and got heavily into mastering Eddie’s innovative tapping technique. But Eddie’s playing isn’t all about tapping, even though EVERYONE knows him for inventing it. He’s always had one of the most amazing and identifiable tones that all guitar players are in search of!

  Eddie Van Halen simply set the standards of rock guitar for the rest of us to follow.

  Hats off to the Master!

  —Gus G

  Ed reinvented the electric guitar for us with his tapping style, which he took further than anyone before him. He plays with such fluidity. It’s so ear-catching to me. It’s inspiring to so many guitarists. And it will be forever!

  I spent some time with him in the studio at A&M once in the 1980s. He was producing Sammy’s solo album at the time. Ed was very excited to show me the new TransTrem system he had been working with. So out we went to the main room, where he had two 4 x 12 cabs and his rack system all set up. He then started playing my song, “Nowhere’s Too Far for My Baby,” and told me how this track had inspired him to use my chord shapes for a Van Halen song. That blew me away … but he then proceeded to give me a sampling of his TransTrem playing!!! Oh, what a treat to watch and listen to him play four inches away from the fret board. Needless to say, it was, in the true sense of the word, AWESOME!

  When Ed stopped, he just handed me the guitar and said “Pete, wanna have a go?” Er … well, you can’t say no, can you!? So, very sheepishly I slowly started to play, having just been royally shown how Ed does it. Definitely, one of the more humbling moments of my career as a guitar player. What a lovely man and a true inspiration to all guitar players, past and future.

  —Peter Frampton

  The first time I heard of or saw Eddie Van Halen play guitar was in 1972 at a student carnival in Arcadia, California. His band, with Alex on drums, played everything from the Who to Cream, with Eddie nailing every guitar part note for note!

  Two years later, the band I was in opened for Van Halen at Pasadena High School. David Lee Roth was now singing lead, and they were playing original material. Eddie’s playing was far beyond what any of the other local guitar players were doing, with a style all his own. I joined Van Halen soon after, and in the twenty-something years that I was in the band, I witnessed not only a true guitar virtuoso, but an innovator at everything he did with the guitar. He would hack up some very expensive guitars, changing the wiring and pickups around to create what would ultimately define his sound, and separate him from any other rock guitarist in the business.

  Good musicians come and go, but the great ones, the pioneers, are the ones who are remembered for their contributions to the music industry. This is Eddie Van Halen …

  —Michael Anthony

  Every once in a while, a rock guitarist comes along who resets the standard—or as you like to say in America, “raises the bar!” Eric Clapton did exactly that in the 1960s with the “Beano” album. The likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Jimi Hendrix did the self-same thing too. Between the four of them, Eric, Jimmy, Jeff, and Jimi really did set the standard by which all others were judged in those all-important early days of the genre.

  I can vividly recall the excitement Edward Van Halen created in the late 1970s with his incredible, groundbreaking guitar playing on his band’s debut album. His fantastic technique really did raise that proverbial bar! And, just like the other chaps I’ve mentioned, it wasn’t only his playing but his tone that inspired countless others all over the world. I was both delighted and proud to learn that, just like those before him, Edward’s amp on that pivotal first Van Halen record was a Marshall.

  I met Edward briefly in late 1985 when we were both part of the very first Rock Walk ceremony in front of Guitar Center in Hollywood. Along with several others, including my much-missed and very dear friend, Les Paul, we had our names and handprints set in cement on the sidewalk of Sunset Strip. It was a wonderful and memorable day. Edward struck me as a very nice and thoroughly modest young fellow, with a wonderful sense of humor.

  —Jim Marshall

  If I had to pay Eddie a dollar for every riff or lick I have ripped off from listening and watching him play, I would certainly be broke! I literally could not understand how he was making the guitar sound they way he did when I heard the first VH record for the very first time. It was like, how do you do that, and where the fuck is that sound coming from??? I spent countless hours, and thousands of dollars, chasing his tone: buying a Charvel, fucking it up with tape and paint, buying my first Floyd Rose (without fine tuners) from Performance Guitar in Hollywood, getting Marshalls modded, buying a Variac … the list goes on. Every single guitarist I knew at the time was doing the same th
ing … it was like Eddiemania. His playing has had more impact on my life as a musician than any other musician or band of musicians, and I am grateful for that!!!

  —Joey Allen

  Wow, the first time I heard Van Halen I was at my cousin’s house. I was fourteen years old and quickly becoming hopelessly seduced by hard rock and the electric guitar. He told me that I had to hear this band, and I popped on some headphones. I had never heard guitar sounds, tones, and noises like this—like they were coming from another planet in a galaxy far away.

  I still believe those sounds are coming from a galaxy far, far away: E=MC2-Shred.

  —Erik Turner

  Edward Van Halen is an extraordinarily gifted and visionary guitarist whose innovative playing was revolutionary in the 1970s, and still is today. I consider Eddie to be one of the most influential guitarists of my lifetime. His playing is highly technical and classically influenced, yet extremely accessible. I am in awe of how effortlessly his fingers dance up and down the guitar neck. Eddie has also made invaluable contributions to equipment designs, and continues to be a major influence upon both veteran musicians and up-and-coming players. I have been lucky to know him during all of this time.

  —Michael Karlin

  I grew up in New York, a whole continent away from the ruckus Eddie was raising out on the West Coast. But like any self-respecting, budding young rock guitarist, I jumped at the opportunity to see “the Man” work his magic when he came to town.

  So there I was, seventeen years old, cash in hand and looking for the best deal I could get on a scalped ticket to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden. I have to look back and laugh, because the only thing that got scalped that day was me! My would-be ticket broker shanghaied my cash and left me standing there like a statue. No ticket, no money, and feeling dejected, by chance I ran into a buddy of mine who hooked me up with a free ticket! All in all it was a ROUGH day, but whatever it took to see the best guitar player in the world, was WELL worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!

  —Jon Levin

  In today’s instant-gratification society, it’s difficult to fully comprehend and appreciate the impact that the authentic innovators of music have made on the generations that followed.

  Very few musicians have the ability to capture an audience’s attention with their musical ideas, as well as inspire them with the skill required to perform their music. Edward Van Halen was able to do both.

  He has the innate ability to naturally express his ideas with memorable personality while also challenging the audience to rethink the very idea of what is possible. Edward Van Halen is a vanguard. Through his amazing tone and phrasing he pioneered so many guitar techniques that influenced millions of people to pick up a guitar and say, “I want to do that!”

  I was definitely one of them. There was no guitar tone that sounded like Van Halen before he hit the scene. To this day, I can listen to “Eruption” or the entire Fair Warning album and be transported to the time when I first heard it and was absolutely blown away by the playing, and by that tone! I was mesmerized, energized, and inspired by the raw power you could hear jumping out of the speakers. The precision of the rhythm in his playing and soloing, and the creative diversions from the norm that he effortlessly employed in his playing, made me scratch my head and say, “How did he come up with that?” His playing definitely stood out back in the day, and it still does now. That is an accomplishment few can lay claim to.

  The guitar is an extension of Edward’s mind, and the stuff he did that we all were stunned by just came naturally to him. That’s what’s so impressive to me. He became so influential to so many, and I know he will continue to inspire future generations.

  I love his guitar playing, and I thank him for all he’s done musically. It changed my life.

  —Dweezil Zappa

  I love Edward Van Halen. I also hate Edward Van Halen. I remember from an early age he was the reminder that I’d never be able to be THAT good. Now, keep in mind that by “good,” I don’t just mean technically advanced, which he most certainly was. I mean that he was able to do it soulfully. There were dozens of guys who practiced relentlessly, and could play loud and fast and all that. But he was different. Eddie did it with a unique feel that made everyone else look amateurish. Another thing commonly overlooked about Eddie is how he writes—yet another thing that separates him from the rest. His melodies are incredible. He was never “wanking.” There was always an idea or emotion being expressed in his playing, which is what makes him one of the best EVER. Eddie revolutionized the way people saw the guitar. For me? Well, I guess he made me put down my guitar and focus on singing … so … thanks, Eddie! And fuck you! :)

  —Adam Levine

  Aerosmith was rehearsing for another record when Van Halen’s first album came out. One of the members of our road crew had the first album, and we went out and listened to it in his car. I loved that record and still love it. Eddie’s playing was just phenomenal. He took everything that he’d heard and put his own stamp on it. I thought, “Oh my God, this is great!” There were a lot of things he did where I was scratching my head and wondering how he did it, little tricks and things. I was blown away by what he was doing. Considering where Aerosmith was in our career, we were totally burned out, and Eddie came along like a breath of fresh air. It was fresh and hard, and I just felt this was the start of something new. It was kind of like when you first heard Nirvana or first heard the Sex Pistols. Eddie’s playing was revolutionary.

  Eddie’s a gifted, natural talent. He’s unstoppable. A musician like that comes along once in a decade or two, if you’re lucky. He reinvented guitar playing. He’s a born musician who just played and played and played and developed his own voice on the guitar, and he kept getting better with every record. The thing about Eddie is he never lost the rock ‘n’ roll spirit to his playing. He wasn’t afraid to rock out on one note once in a while. In many ways, he redefined guitar playing. He did what Jimi Hendrix did, taking the same guitar that everybody plays and turning it into a different instrument.

  His guitar solo on “Beat It” is unbelievable. It’s right up there with Clapton’s solo on “Crossroads” or Jeff Beck’s solo on “Blues Deluxe.” It’s one of those solos that you can listen to over and over again wondering how in the hell he did it.

  I’ve never seen Eddie without a guitar in his hands. He invited me and Steven Tyler up to his house one time, and he came out to meet us, and he had a guitar in his hands. Every time I’ve seen him backstage he always had a guitar in his hands. He’s always playing. That’s the sign of a true musician’s musician.

  —Joe Perry

  It is very hard to reinvent the wheel, but once in a very great while a soul comes in who does. When that happens, the world turns upside down, and this is what happened with the coming of Edward Van Halen.

  It was 1977 when I heard him first. I had heard of him before, as we were all local L.A. kids trying to make it, but when I heard the first Van Halen record he eviscerated any competition … in a cool way. No one had ever heard sounds like this with such soul and power. It was not just the chops that were staggering, it was the whole sound! It was humbling but also such an inspiration. Also a humble, wonderful, generous guy as well. I am honored to have him as a friend, and also to have played with him, and had many a laugh. Live long, my brother. It doesn’t get much better.

  —Steve Lukather

  It’s the 1984 Van Halen tour, and the band is finishing things up in Dallas, Texas. At the same time, the Jacksons are starting up their Victory tour. These two concerts have two things in common. The first is that it will be the final tour for both bands, Van Halen because the band had been falling apart for some time, and the Jacksons because at the end of the tour, Michael Jackson announced that he would be quitting the band and going his own way. The second thing they had in common is that Edward Van Halen played the guitar in both, though he only played one night with the Jacksons, doing the guitar solo for “Beat It” on the opening night, just as
he had for the song on Thriller. Before the show, Edward ensured his guitar was tuned to his particular playing style, which was not in the usual way. But when he came out onstage, he found that his guitar had been retuned to the style most common on the tour. As the guitar screeched out bad notes, Edward had to call on his discipline and talent to play a chord at a time until he got his tone back, on a whole different key than normal. From there he started playing his heart out, wowing the audience on a mistuned guitar. Was the guitar mistuned on purpose by a roadie hoping to build up his own band on the back of another, or was it just a mistake of the crew, thinking that the guitar had really been incorrectly set? Either way, Edward revealed true talent by winging it with a band he was not familiar with and a mistuned guitar.

  —Eddie Anderson

  Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I was invited to a private birthday bowling party out in Montrose, California. Edward and the band were there bowling and having a great time, and I joined in as well. After a while it seemed that Edward and I were the top two bowlers there. We ended up going head to head in an extreme bowling match. I don’t even remember who won, but it was good times!

  —Tommy Thayer

  Eddie’s creativity, his playing, and guitar technique have completely passed and bridged every style, skill, and performance, with enormous taste and diversity. Everybody loves Eddie.

  —Rick Nielsen

  Out of any guitarist who ever lived, Eddie is the one who inspired me the most. I’m embarrassed to say that the first time I heard Edward play was on his solo for the MJ tune “Beat It.” At that time in my life I was listening to a lot of R&B on local radio stations, and I was not hip to a lot of rock guitar players. But when I heard Eddie play, the guitar just sounded different from anything I had ever heard. The tone, the phrasing, and the technique were all so unique. The biggest inspiration to me as a guitarist was that Eddie made me understand how your personality could come through the instrument, through your hands and how and what you played. He inspired me to find my own voice on the instrument and have it come from me, and not from effects or other nonorganic tools.