This is a kick in the balls. He's the reason I picked up a guitar for the first time.

Took this at the Spectrum in 1988.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
This is a kick in the balls. He's the reason I picked up a guitar for the first time.

For my first guitar, I bought Charvel parts from Dr. Music in Pasadena, same place he used to shop at.

We wore their first album out in my buddy’s pool room as high schoolers. One of the greatest guitarists ever. RIP.

I thought the Blue Angels-Dreams video was the best thing I'd ever seen back when it came out. I never saw them perform in the A4, but have many times with the F18s. Does anyone know if they actually landed all 6 at the same time at airshows, or was that done just for the video?

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
Didn't know he was that ill. Wolfgang is his son by Valerie Bertinelli who I thought was quite the hottie and a great catch fro Eddie back in the day.

He’s been fighting cancer for years and it seems to have spread to his brain. His style and sound defined 80s rock.

Wow, sad news indeed...

Didn‘t know, he had this most feared illness...

Van Halen has always been one of my alltime favorite bands. Saw them with David Lee Roth once (waayy back...) and with Sammy Hagar twice.

Thinking of the guitar intro to „Ain‘t talkin‘ bout love“ right now...

Once again important (to me at least) news, that I first read about in SIGforum, before anywhere else!


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Many years ago I ran into his wife Valerie Bertinelli just coming out of a radio interview at a studio located in my NJ. ^AM not quite awake patrolling the area found her in the parking lot. Even doing a radio interview she dressed hot.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
I thought the Blue Angels-Dreams video was the best thing I'd ever seen back when it came out. I never saw them perform in the A4, but have many times with the F18s. Does anyone know if they actually landed all 6 at the same time at airshows, or was that done just for the video?

I don't believe so, the Scooter is quite a bit smaller than the F-18. I thought it was the best plane the Blue's ever used, not only a hot-shit maneuverable plane but, it's roll-rate was crazy, great for aerobatics. There's a number of maneuvers they used to do they no longer do with the F-18

Major bummer. One of my top 5 all time guitar players!

RIP Eddie. You will be missed.

Not afraid to say when I learned of this news today that I choked up. Van Halen is my favorite band of all-time and Eddie was a teenage hero of mine. Saw my first rock concert in '84 at the Spectrum in Philly, slept out overnight a few years later for the 5150 tour and had a blast at the Monsters of Rock concert at the old JFK stadium.
Eddie's sound has been replicated many times by other rock musicians and his musical legacy (guitars, amps, riffs, etc.) will be around for a long, long time thank God.

RIP Eddie and I know the angels in heaven are rockin' Eruption w/you tonight.

He didn't invent "tapping", but he defintely popularized the technique. That guitar was smoking (and I don't mean the cigarette).

Damn it.

Bad news. I played the crap out of 1984 cassette. RIP EVH

Damn. RIP Eddie.

Van Halen was the soundtrack of my high school years.

I'm very sorry to hear this. RIP, Eddie.

RIP, damn, it hit me too, from twelve to 18 years old (1984)the original lineup was the soundtrack of my teens through junior high to high school. I remember when I heard their first songs it was such a blast to finally hear a hard rocking band again.

Who can forget when you first heard "Eruption" kickin into "You really got me".

EVH could flat out get after it on a guitar.
RIP pal and thanks for all the tunes.

Well that just ruined my day.

I'll share MY Eddie story:

Sometime around 2003 and I was working as a ski patroller at Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, UT. I was in the plaza and some lady tapped me on the shoulder from behind. I turned and thought to myself, "Man, that girl looks just like Vallerie Bertinelli."

She asked if I'd take a look at her husband. I look over to where she's pointing and along comes this gangly, skinny dude shuffling along in a pair of checkered Vans. I thought, "Man, that dude looks like Eddie Van Halen."

Not thinking much of it I started tending to a nasty gash in his leg (I guess I'll risk the HIPAA violation for a good story). After dealing with the injury and having to fill out the paperwork after I asked him for his name. "If you say your name is "Eddie" I might actually believe you."

"My name is Eddie."

At that point I actually took a hard look at his face. The cancer had ravaged him, but sure enough...I actually had a moment. (I've treated literally hundreds of celebrities in my career, particularly around Sundance season, and I've never really given a damn.) But I seriously had to compose myself.

It was probably one of the most memorable patient interactions I've ever had. I idolized the dude and hearing that he's gone has me thinking the world is just a little worse of a place than it was yesterday.

p.s. Under "Occupation" I wrote: Rock God.

RIP Eddie. No better guitarist ever lived.

RIP Eddie!

While in HS me and a some buddies took the ‘concert party’ train from Croton Harmon NY down to NYC to a Sabbath concert in MSG, and VH was the warm-up band. Must’ve been ‘76 or ‘77.

None of us had even heard of VH at that point but we surely did after their warm-up set, which was the entirety of their first album, side A and B played straight thru! Freaking amazing!!

Honestly, Sabbath was challenged to top VH’s show!