RIP Eddie Van Halen

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Oct 2020 11:48 am

Sad news today ---> https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/stor ... ar-dies-65

Lee Warren · Post by **Lee Warren** » 6 Oct 2020 11:58 am

He was a real game changer in the world of rock guitar.
I never played (or could play) any of his licks, but was fortunate enough to hang with him a couple of times, after hours.
He was a fun guy.
R.I.P. Eddie.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Oct 2020 12:03 pm

He was one of a few players who actually changed the way the guitar was played. Others were Jimi and Chet. Seems like each generation has one or two groundbreaking guitarists and Eddie was the guy for the 80s!

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 6 Oct 2020 12:07 pm

Godspeed Eddie!

Sympathies to his family, Alex, Wolfgang, DLR and Michael.

I'm shocked but I knew he had a health issue.

Rich Upright · Post by **Rich Upright** » 6 Oct 2020 12:16 pm

He was the best rock guitar player that ever lived. R.I.P. Eddie.

Dustin Rigsby · Post by **Dustin Rigsby** » 6 Oct 2020 12:49 pm

I can’t even describe how sad this makes me. EVH was the guy that made me want to play guitar. My first and greatest guitar hero.

Tal Herbsman · Post by **Tal Herbsman** » 6 Oct 2020 1:56 pm

So sad. He provided the soundtrack to my early adolescence. what a talent/loss.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 6 Oct 2020 2:18 pm

He was the the cocky, smart ass guy at your high school.

But in his case, he was also blessed with an overabundance of talent and creativity.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 6 Oct 2020 3:14 pm

Good Lord, I guess I've been out of the loop. I knew he was having problems, but I didn't realize it was this bad.

To me, he was the last great, universal rock guitar hero. His soloing was great, but like Jimi, his rock rhythm guitar sense was even greater. The Brown Sound is still the benchmark for hard rock guitar tone as far as I'm concerned.

I still remember the first time I heard Van Halen like it was yesterday. I was driving home from work up I-75 in Detroit, listening to the main rock station. The DJ comes on and says, "Man, you gotta listen to this, and turn it up.", nothing else, and proceeded to play the entire album end-to-end for the first time. I damned near went off the road after the intro to Running with the Devil. When I got home, I just sat in the car and listened to the end. My wife came out and asked what was wrong, and was I making dinner?

RIP Ed.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 6 Oct 2020 3:17 pm

Sad news, One of my friends was in LA and his car broke down and it happened to be in front of Eddies house, and he was a big fan. Eddie and his dad came outand helped him. Said he couldn't have been a nicer guy.

I also did work for the guy who owned Kramer guitar back in the 80's, I'm sure Eddie made him a ton of Ducketts(sp)

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 6 Oct 2020 4:55 pm

I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard Eddie. He was an icon.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Oct 2020 5:09 pm

I remember where I was too. I was driving home after a gig, listening to a local rock station and they played "Eruption". I was so blown away I had to pull the car over to the side of the road and listen! Never heard anything like it.

Jeffrey Smith · Post by **Jeffrey Smith** » 6 Oct 2020 5:38 pm

Dustin Rigsby wrote:I can’t even describe how sad this makes me. EVH was the guy that made me want to play guitar. My first and greatest guitar hero.

Oddly enough, when I heard him play for the first time, I wanted to QUIT guitar! So much talent!

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 6 Oct 2020 8:26 pm

Had great respect for this guy. He also kept us guitar repairman busy and in the black thru the 80's installing Floyd Rose trems.

Paul King · Post by **Paul King** » 7 Oct 2020 1:45 am

Even though I never was a rock fan I do realize Eddie was a tremendous guitar picker. He definitely made a huge impact on many musicians down through the years.

Dana Blodgett · Post by **Dana Blodgett** » 7 Oct 2020 4:32 am

Years ago I saw Eddie in SLO airport load a couple guitars from Ernie Ball onto the conveyor belt, left opening a secure door to the plane waiting, then set off the alarm. He proceeded to plane and realized he was the last person to board plane, got nervous or something and de boarded plane, came back into terminal and I literally almost ran into him. He was laughing all the while. I donâ€™t know how he got home, later flight or what!? He was very good player although not my style.RIP

John Larson · Post by **John Larson** » 7 Oct 2020 4:48 am

I can't believe we lost rock's greatest guitarist and drummer in the same year. As with Neil Peart's passing earlier this year this one has hit me pretty hard.
I honed my lead guitar playing on the backs of guys like EVH and there was a lot of time woodshedding with my Phase 90 practicing triad tapping. It doesn't matter when you were born anyone with respect for instrument skills can remember the first time they heard "Eruption", it's life changing. He completely changed all heavy rock guitar playing that came after forever.

Prayers to the entire Van Halen family and bandmates.

RIP Eddie

John Norris · Post by **John Norris** » 7 Oct 2020 6:24 am

An EVH story from Pat Bovenizer, my good buddy and colleague at Peterson Tuners, who was about 25 at the time:

'I'm thinking this was ~1982 or 1983. He was at what is now called the winter NAMM Show.
I know he was already married to Valerie because I was jealous of that .
It was the last day of the show and he was working with a guitar company (probably Kramer) that had a booth close to us.

Late on the last day of the show he and few people from his entourage came over to the Peterson booth and he was talking to me and Jim Mornar about how he used our strobe tuner but it did not tune exactly right.

I was initially debating this with him until I realized he was saying that he didn't agree with Equal Temperament and he used the strobe to dial in his own cent offsets.
Someone who was with him, like a publicist or something, was privately telling me "please don’t argue with him, he is very argumentative" .
By the end of the conversation he was asking for a hit of our beer because the beer stand had shut down.'

RIP Eddie, a virtuoso instrumentalist and a brilliant, iconic performer.
He'll be sorely missed.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 7 Oct 2020 8:28 am

Mike Neer wrote:
Ginger Baker also died a year ago yesterday, coincidentally a member of one of Eddie’s favorite bands.

Van Halen, Freddie Hart, Ginger Baker....damn, they're dropping like flies! Very sad!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 7 Oct 2020 9:24 am

Van Halen, Freddie Hart, Ginger Baker....damn, they're dropping like flies! Very sad!

Also Bill Withers, John Prine, Charlie Daniels, Peter Green, Mac Davis, Helen Reddy, Johnny Nash, Trini Lopez... all recently departed.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 7 Oct 2020 11:49 am

Doug, it's all great ones leaving us, not hacks. I feel oddly reassured!

(No disrespect intended!

)

MIchael Bean · Post by **MIchael Bean** » 7 Oct 2020 4:32 pm

And now add Ray Pennington to that list. He just died in a house fire, it's reported.

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 8 Oct 2020 8:17 am

Edward Van Halen... (he reportedly went by Edward, not Eddie)

Man, for me, when it comes to the fast solo, he's the guy who always set the standard. He was the Ernst Mach of guitar playing speed. Faster or slower, you were measured by the Van Halen yardstick.

I have a friend who worked with him in a professional capacity, doing repairs on his API console at 5051 Studios, and also building a couple of legendary BA-660 microphone preamps for him, and he said that he was a great guy who went out of his way to treat people right.

It's always sad when someone like this dies, but look back at what an incredible life he did live. I call it a success.