RIP EVH

I was stunned to hear of the passing of EVH today, hit me like a ton of bricks....sigh....a very, very, sad day. He was indeed the guitar hero of my generation.

In the time when there disco ruled the charts, punk was gleefully eradicating 'rock', and it was all looking dire, I'll never forget when my brother brought home "Van Halen" and ignited the next wave of hard rock. A game changing band/release and it's energy, recklessness, vibe, tone, playing, production...everything about it was 'next-level'.

I've been thinking of how much he, and VH, were so much a part of my teen years and how he absolutely blew me away when I first heard the debut and "Eruption" in particular.

I could go on and on for hours here as to how influential EVH was, how many 'guitar-things' that we now take for granted were invented by him, how he completely re-wrote the book on hard rock playing, his many innovations, originality, and the many limits he pushed, etc., etc., but this quote from Zappa to EVH sums it all up:

"Thank you for re-inventing the electric guitar."

Happy Trails EVH. Thanks for the ride.....you'll be missed.
 
I drove through a blizzard in northern Utah in 1977 to hear this new guitarist my friend was raving about. He was a Kiss fan so I wasn’t expecting much.

I’d been playing for over 10 years and was influenced by Hendrix,Terry Kath, Steve Howe, Fripp, DiMeola, etc.

Band was Van Halen. Eddie was turning to face his amp when he was tapping. Guess he didn’t want to give away his secrets before he got famous!

I knew right then that the world had changed. My life certainly did.

Rushed to their tour bus after the show. Knee deep snow and 10 degrees. Hour later band and entourage burst out the doors. I was ten feet from Eddie when Roth face planted right at my feet. Big dude said help me get him in the bus. Bus smelled like a garbage truck in August. Beer cans and garbage everywhere. Pizza slice stuck on the window. Threw DLR in a bunk and they kicked us off the bus. Never got to talk to Eddie. Detested Roth ever since.

When I graduated from Berklee I bought my first Kramer with my first Floyd Rose and tuned down a half step.

Seriously, couldn’t even pick up a guitar today.
 
In absolute stunned paralysis at the moment! EVH was a true hero for so many of us trying to emulate his style in 70's/80's! I worked for nearly 3 months to get Eruption down for my high school talent show when I was a teenager in the late 70's and I'm simply crushed by his passing at such a young 65. Between EVH, SRV, Randy Rhoads and Jason Becker, et al, we were all inspired to sling our guitars and try to achieve a hint of their brilliance, tone and technique!

RIP EVH

Time to turn this year over and reset!

Rock on friends and brothers - play it loud and proud in remembrance of the true Guitar Hero!
 
Huge loss for all mankind, but at the same time, what a life. Eddie has influenced pretty much every single guitar player I listen to.
 
I can't believe this is true, I'm reading this again and again with tears in my eyes,
Such a huge influence on my style of playing and sound.
As a kid I used to listen to them all day long,
Lately I found myself going back to the resources, dialing again his sound on the Axe, playing the old stuff and simply enjoy every minute.
What a lost.
RIP.
 
Yes - sad news
Van Halen was not my favorite band and i had only 2 records in the 80s
But i respect Eddies influence to guitar music !
Strange this because i got my FM3 since 4 weeks and one of the first presets i dialed in was the Erruption one and I've played it...about a week ago last time---now he is gone
 
Heard about this about 11pm UK time, got up this morning and the shock has just hit me hard.
He was such a colourful player, used such interesting chords in his playing and he had all his crazy little fills at the end of a riff!
He was always smiling when he played.
He was one of those rare people who helped to offset the mundanity and suck-age of life for so many.
I feel like, for many of us musical guitar-playing dudes, this is the final straw in a sxxt year.
I guess all we can do is to keep playing to honour his memory because he'll live on in our playing.
Rock on!
 
Chalk me up as yet another who was inspired to start playing guitar because of EVH. I remember using a tennis racket as an air guitar jumping off my bed playing Eruption as loud as my stereo would play.
 
I was never into Van Halen, and I don't remember them being big over here in the 80's. Saw a lot of kids with badges of the Big 4 of trash metal, Iron Maiden, Mötorhead, never Van Halen. Then again much of the American metal scene of the 80's, other then trash, was big over here. Not even Ozzy. I think they became bigger over here in the 90's. Jump was a hit though and Running With the Devil always made it into the Top 100 greatest hits ever. Maybe I was into different scenes I guess. For some strange reason which I still can't fathom I have the first two Van Halen records on vinyl though. I don't think I've ever bought them.

My late father used to own a video recording company at the time and he had to film David Lee Roth when he was performing solo in the Netherlands. He said he met the guy and was favorably impressed. Kept his backstage pass around on his trophy wall for years. I think he recorded most of the gig, but only got sound for the first two songs. I wonder what happened to those tapes?
 
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