October 6, 2020 brought sad news to music lovers all over the world with the loss of rock guitarist extraordinaire Eddie Van Halen. He succumbed after a long battle with throat cancer. He was 65 years old.
In 1978, a friend of mine ended up with an extra ticket to a Black Sabbath concert because his girlfriend was not interested in going. He asked if I wanted to go and said, “I’m mostly going to hear the warm up band, a new group called Van Halen.” Van Halen’s self titled first album had just been released. The single “Running with the Devil” was getting a lot of play on the radio, but that was the only Van Halen song I was familiar with at the time. Little did I know that I was about to witness a guitar player do things with his instrument that had never been done before.
The show was amazing. We left the arena after Black Sabbath played their first song. Not because they were bad, but because we were in shock by what we had just experienced from Eddie Van Halen. For me, Hard Rock, and my expectations for guitar players, changed that night and could never be the same.
Eddie was an innovator. He was considered a guitar legend before he turned 25. The band sold 80 million albums world wide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Throughout his career he created music that will influence and inspire guitar players for generations to come. What better tribute could a musician hope for?
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