EVH dead at 65

[redking]

Watching Rick Beato's tribute this evening made me realize that everything I know about rock music and guitar started with Eddie Van Halen. I was 9 years old when 1984 came out. My older cousin showed me this crazy LP with a baby smoking on the cover - the blasphemy! I was hooked immediately. I distinctly remember losing my shit when the drum intro for Hot For Teacher came on when he played it for me on the hifi for the first time. Jump was already a hit on the radio and "Video Hits" by then. The Winnipeg Jets had already adopted it as their theme song when they came on the ice. (I hated the Jets - but damn I loved it when that song came on and the players ran out of the tunnel to take their first laps around the ice!) Somehow, I even knew that Eddie played the solo on Beat It by this time - not sure how since there was no internet and I was too young to buy a rock magazine.

This is worse for me than if Page or Clapton's time had come. I didn't even discover them until I was 18 or 19. Losing Eddie is a profound loss. No other way to say it. And sadly the decade ahead is going to bring more of them.

For some reason, today at work I was listening to youtube in the background and a string of Van Halen stuff came on including a great live version of Eruption. And I never do this, but for some reason I was curious and looked up both Eddie and Wolfie's Instagram pages on the web. I don't even have an Instagram account. This must have been an hour before Wolfie's announcement. For some reason the universe was telling me to acknowledge him one last time maybe.

 

[tazzboy]

RIP

 

[MiniB]

I think that this in particular is hitting a lot of folks extra hard because of the context of this year, and the coming dangerous winter and even the uncertainty of our political landscape.....where we feel that so many things are being taken away from us, or disintegrating before our eyes. It's harder to see a brighter future and move on. The loss of this icon of youth, excitement and enthusiasm is a tough pill to swallow, kind of bolsters the inner fear that there are things we won't be getting back, especially since he wasn't even that old by today's standards. It's too sobering, if you will.

Also, needless to say there are countless guitar players who cherish the impact that he and Van Halen had on music and pop culture. But it kind of feels that we didn't get to thank him...at least not enough. Yes he had been battling cancer for a while, but you just felt like he was going to be around longer if he hadn't already died young. I think that's also a part of what feels as if the rug was pulled out from beneath us.

If there's anything comforting, I do believe he found happiness in the final years....playing again, hopefully defeating his substance dependency and in particular playing his music with his son. I think he knew what he meant to the world of music and pop culture, and we knew that he knew. But I think that many still wanted to tell him anyway, be it personally or through a tribute show like Zeppelin got, or whatever. And now we won't get that chance.

 

[jc2000]

SHOCKED!!

 

[Vortex]

I’ll bet that song made just as many players put down their guitars as it made people pick up the guitar.

And probably more than once. I still think "WTF?!" when I listen.

 

[rogue3]

He touched everyone. Mind blowing guitar,...and in an understated way.A pillar.rest now.

 

[Soul Tramp]

I have to admit to not caring much for the band's music. But Eddie and Jimmi were probably the two greatest guitar innovators in R&R. Rest in Peace!

 

[ToneasaurusRex]

Here I am with Eddie's Frankenstein at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'll miss him.

Peace

Rex

 

[redking]

Here I am with Eddie's Frankenstein at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'll miss him.

View attachment 493006

Peace

Rex

My favorite part of that graphic has always been the squiggly lines just above the neck pickup!

 

[Mockbel]

Dio, EVH, SRV, BB King and many others who I grew up watching have died...

Every time one of those legends fall, I realize how much I am getting old...

 

[Leumas]

I've known about the throat cancer for a long time, but Valerie mentioned lung cancer in her tribute. It makes sense, but still a total shame. Got my dad at almost exactly the same age.

 

[Leumas]

Dio, EVH, SRV, BB King and many others who I grew up watching have died...

Every time one of those legends fall, I realize how much I am getting old...

You know it's strange...Dio seemed so much older when he passed even though it's only two more years than Eddie. His energy was so youthful, even when he was off his gourd on god knows what.

Ironic that the guy with the longest run was the morbidly obese guy who had diabetes for six decades.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I've known about the throat cancer for a long time, but Valerie mentioned lung cancer in her tribute. It makes sense, but still a total shame. Got my dad at almost exactly the same age.

I don't think Eddie ever really quit smoking. I've seen recent(ish) pics of him with cigarettes and vape pens.

scary shit.

definitely don't think it was the guitar picks that gave him cancer.




...fucking cancer.

 

[Leumas]

I don't think Eddie ever really quit smoking. I've seen recent(ish) pics of him with cigarettes and vape pens.

scary shit.

definitely don't think it was the guitar picks that gave him cancer.




...fucking cancer.

Neither did my dad. He smoked right up until the day he went. Ironically it was all the other cancers he got from the lung that did him in. The lung cancer was "cured" or in total remission. The other ones didn't respond so well to treatment.

 

[Eternal Scar]

Thank you for everything EVH!! R.I.P

 

[MikeyTheCat]

Here I am with Eddie's Frankenstein at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'll miss him.

View attachment 493006

Peace

Rex

So much great music produced with a total piece of crap. Let that be a lesson kids, it really is in the hands not the finish.
My favorite feature was the switch in the middle pickup cavity to throw off imitators. Freaking Eddie had us scrambling trying to figure out what he was up to only to find out it was just a pickup and volume control all along.

 

[jkes01]

He couldn’t get it to work without the switch so he got it working and shoved it in the middle pickup.

I haven’t watched MTV in decades but have had MTV Classic on since yesterday. Nothing but VH videos.

 

[Leumas]

Here I am with Eddie's Frankenstein at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'll miss him.

View attachment 493006

Peace

Rex

I really enjoyed your work on Mythbusters.

 

[VictorB]

I started learning how to play guitar in the mid to late 80s, when the hair metal movement was in full swing. They were all VH clones in some form or another. All of it was horrible IMO, none of them had going on what EVH had...

The only finger tapper 80s guitar player that was original to my ears was Randy Rhoads.

 

[Leumas]

I started learning how to play guitar in the mid to late 80s, when the hair metal movement was in full swing. They were all VH clones in some form or another. All of it was horrible IMO, none of them had going on what EVH had...

The only finger tapper 80s guitar player that was original to my ears was Randy Rhoads.

Are you besmirching the good name of Michael Angelo Batio?