Fox Tales: Eddie Van Halen always played at a pace that thrills
David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen playfully twirl in a circle during the beginning of "Light Up the Sky," the opening song of the band's concert on July 18, 2015, at USANA Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City. The legendary guitarist died Tuesday at the age of 65. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Eddie Van Halen performs at the Spectrum at Utah State University on March 31, 1979, in the band's first Utah appearance. The iconic guitarist, 65, died Oct. 6, 2020, of throat cancer.
Eddie Van Halen performs at the beginning of the Van Halen concert at ParkWest on July 14, 1998. The iconic guitarist, 65, died Oct. 6, 2020, of throat cancer.
When you write for a living, being at a loss for words is not really part of the job description. But that was my reaction when a friend messaged me that Eddie Van Halen had died.
We had just started our daily news budget meeting via Google Chat, where we go over stories planned for the next day’s newspaper, when I saw the message. And truth be told, I don’t really remember much of what else went on during the meeting – or for the couple hours after that. I take that back, I do remember getting a flood of messages and calls from friends who were feeling the same shock that I was. The shared sentiments were indeed cathartic, to a degree, but like I said, being a writer, I know nothing will quite feel real until the words start flowing.
Anyone who knows me to any small degree knows what a Van Halen fan I am. Music fans the world over may have many bands they love – as do I – but if you’re real lucky you have one absolute favorite. William Miller had Stillwater. I had Van Halen.
I’ve always said that Van Halen isn’t just a band, it’s a lifestyle. You could say Van Halen became my lifestyle on that day in the early summer of 1978 when my brother Dennis and I journeyed with purpose to a nearby record store to pick up the debut album of this hot new band we’d been hearing on the radio in Southern California. (I drove, Dennis bought the cassette.) I know I’ve written about this in great detail before – but our worlds forever changed when we pulled into the garage at home just as “Eruption” exploded into the car stereo speakers. Eddie’s famous guitar solo was something out of this world. Remember that scene from “Back to the Future” when Marty McFly slips the Walkman headphones on his sleeping father and uses a cassette featuring an explosion of jam by Eddie V.H. to get him to do his bidding? (What, you thought Chumbawumba would get the job done?) Our experience seemed just as mind-blowing.
Seeing Van Halen in concert for the first time at Utah State University’s Spectrum arena in Logan was the ultimate next step in my musical metamorphosis. The black-and-white accompanying photo is my favorite Eddie Van Halen pic of all time. Shot by my friend Cameron Hancock, who was sitting right next to me, from the seventh row on the floor, to me this photo captures the complete exuberance of a young guitar god, not just in the making, but on the cusp of totally changing the expectations of what could be accomplished with 10 fingers and six strings. I’ve had this photo in my collection for 41 years now – and, visually, it’s how I most remember that night.
It took me many years to fully come to this realization, but that show, early in the tour promoting “Van Halen II,” is the single greatest concert I’ve ever attended. We did not realize it at the time, but Eddie played his now-iconic Frankenstein guitar featuring the fresh new red-with-black-and-white stripes design for one of the first times ever. Photos from that night show the guitar still in transformation – for example, there was no pick guard in place, allowing you to literally see inside the belly of the best. To date, we’ve never been able to document earlier photos of the guitar with that paint job than this show. Cameron, incidentally, is the one who first messaged me the news of Eddie’s passing. I am grateful to have heard the news from a friend with shared Van Halen history, than having just seen it on social media or the news wires.
I’m going to hit some highlights, because I’m not in the frame of mind to write a master’s thesis on Eddie Van Halen tonight, but here are some of my other favorite memories and scattershot thoughts on the greatest guitar player of all time.
— Some friends and I actually visited the Van Halen home in Pasadena on the morning of the young band’s first-ever show at the Inglewood Forum. We had a nervously fun visit with Eddie’s father.
— I was able to see King Edward in concert 13 times (but wish it had been a lot more). He never disappointed – even in 2004 when he was battling his demons and clearly not at the top of his game. The last time was especially memorable – a bucket list show at Red Rocks in Colorado on the 2015 tour, the band’s last. That trip almost didn’t happen for me, but now I can’t fathom the regret if I had somehow missed the opportunity.
— My penultimate Van Halen show was also extremely memorable, and came at USANA Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City two days before the just-mentioned Red Rocks concert. Being an outdoor show, I knew sound would carry well, so I arranged to go up several hours early, figuring to just hang out at a convenient spot and listen in. Hey, any time you can hear Eddie Van Halen play guitar — even if you can’t see him at the time — is still an opportunity not to be missed. Hanging out in front of the main gates before soundcheck, I bumped into Teresa Mooney from United Concerts, who was gathering a group of radio contest winners to escort them into the exclusive soundcheck event. Confused why I was there so early, I explained I just couldn’t pass up any chance to hear the band live, even, as it were, from afar. She told me to hang tight, because as fate would have it, one of the contest winners had yet to show up, and if that spot was still open when she took the group in, it was mine. The next 10 minutes were some of the longest of my life — anxiously waiting to see if that last person would slip in under the wire. Do you think I’d be including this story if that person actually showed up? Sometimes you just put yourself in the right place at the right time and the universe does the rest. Watching the band (sans lead singer David Lee Roth) run through five songs from that night’s setlist from the front barrier was somewhat spellbinding. As he was taking his guitar off at the end, Eddie casually tossed the guitar pick he’d used throughout soundcheck toward the fans in front. Would you believe that pick hit me right in my left palm — my glove hand for crying out loud — but as I tried to secure it, it slipped harmlessly back over the barrier and into a hole in the photo pit grating, out of reach for everyone. About a year later, however, that very pick returned to my palm for the first time since it originally touched. But that’s a story for another day.
— I had the chance to interview Eddie once. A 40-minute phone call during the Van Halen III tour. On the originally scheduled day, the publicist called to postpone. I could interview Eddie within a week or two, she said, or chat with lead-singer-at-the-time Gary Cherone in the next day or so. “Uh, I’ll wait.” No offense to Gary, but when you have the chance to interview someone as monumental as Eddie Van Halen, you don’t mind waiting a few days longer. That interview remains the single-most personally satisfying opportunity I’ve had in nearly 35 years of working at a newspaper. At the end of the interview, Eddie was gracious enough to record me a voicemail greeting. For years, that message greeted callers on my work phone – many of whom were somewhat perplexed. But it was also fun to hear the reactions from music industry personnel and even well-known musicians themselves, who called at times other than our scheduled interviews. They would often leave messages as if they were talking to Eddie themselves.
— I got to meet the legend himself backstage on two occasions. The first time was on the “Balance” tour in 1995. Not wanting to stammer my way through that initial meeting, I gave much thought to what I wanted to say. I recalled a story he’d once told about meeting his musical idol, Eric Clapton. He had been so nervous, and afterward he felt the meeting hadn’t quite gone so well. But he had a photo of the two of them from that night, and looking at it later he said that Eric had a look on his face that seemed to say he understood. I used that story to cover my own nervousness, and told Eddie, “Now I know how you felt the night you met Eric Clapton.” There was a slight pause, and a momentary, knowing grin. Mostly, he had a look on his face that said he understood.
— One of the other accompanying photos is another of my all-time favorite Eddie live shots, taken by Daily Herald staff photographer Marc Lester at Park City on July 14, 1998, on the “Van Halen III” tour. Again, the expression of complete freedom to me is the pure essence of Eddie Van Halen with a guitar in his hands. I met him for the second time before this show. Having just done the interview with him the week before, he remembered our conversation and we actually talked about whether he’d had a chance to hit the Alpine Slide yet. At this time, Eddie’s brother in law owned a home in Park City, and Eddie had remarked that one of the things he was most looking forward to was taking his then-young son Wolfgang on the Alpine Slide.
— Through my love of all things Van Halen, I have made some of the greatest friends imaginable. Through conventions and social circles on the internet – shoutout to the original Van Halen Mailing List – I have made lifelong friends. I know they are all grieving with today’s news, too.
I could certainly keep going on and on, but I should probably close for now. It’s weird how the universe tweaks you in subtle ways. Just this past weekend, I had the thought that if I ever had the chance to interview Eddie again, one question I would really like to ask is about his split jump kicks – which fans refer to as Flying Eddies. I was just always fascinated at the evolution of that into his live performances. Pete Townshend had the windmill strum, Jimmy Page had the cello bow, etc. But Eddie had the soaring split-legged jumps. I always wanted to know, when did he really do the first one? Did it happen spontaneously or was it planned? How much practice did it take to actually perfect it? How in the world could someone get so much air and still play guitar without missing a beat? Has a guitarist ever looked cooler than Eddie Van Halen in mid-flight? Those questions will probably now go unanswered. Well, except for the last one, I mean.
One of the best friends I’ve made in this wild Van Halen journey of mine is Jeff Hausman, who runs the Van Halen News Desk (VHND.com), and for which I volunteer as a contributing writer. When Jeff and I get on the phone together, which happens fairly frequently, we often have conversations that last for hours. (Just ask our wives!) One of our favorite what-if discussion scenarios over the years involves the question of time travel. If we could go back in time, where would we go first? We have been solidly in agreement, that it would either be to catch Van Halen on the band’s debut tour in 1978 or on the 1981 “Fair Warning” tour, when the band was unquestionably at the zenith of its ferocity and power.
But now I’ve changed my mind. If I could, I’d set the dials on that time machine to yesterday, when I was blissfully unaware of what today’s news would bring.
RIP, Eddie. You’ve earned it.