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RIP Eddie Van Halen, dead at 65 (1 Viewer)

F this year!  I used to listen to top 40 until my sister brought home Van Halen album & turned me into a rocker. Always my favorite band no matter if it was Dave or Sam. Crushed.

 
God I hate 2020, Neil Peart AND Eddie Van Halen in the same effing year from cancer along with the countless others that have passed on from Covid - arrrrggghhh -  what an absolutely miserable year!

 
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Bummer. Saw Van Halen several times. Last was at TigerJam in Vegas. Eddie killed it. Then I played blackjack next to Valerie. Huge part of my adolescence has Eddie’s solos playing in the background. RIP Eddie. 

 
Celebrities and the like dying usually doesn't phase me, but I was always a huge Van Halen fan through every phase. Real bummer. Icon. Not really any left like that 

 
This is definitely getting to me.  More a statement of just where we are at in life and that anyone that was a teenager in the 80s is probably starting to feel a little old.

He really influenced a lot of modern guitar players.
This is going to sting a bit.   Killer guitar player and huge influence on most of my favorite bands from the 80s.   Ugh.  

 
Apart from the guitar virtuosity, the guy wrote (at least partially if not all of) tons of great songs. Sad to see him go. At least his tunes will live on. I think I'll go listen to Everybody Wants Some and Unchained on a loop for a while...

 
So, I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was 10 years old, me, my brother and some of the neighborhood kids used to throw up a huge giant tent in our backyard and we would camp out, run around the neighborhood like idiots, etc.  And one of the guys brought a little AM/FM radio and we had the local FM rock station playing.  Of course, all the usual rock from 1978 was on, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Boston, The Who, pretty much all the classic rock from back then but then, out of nowhere, comes "Eruption/Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen and I remember being absolutely, blown away by it.  It wasn't just incredible, it was mind blowing to me, maybe I didn't get out much but it sounded like absolutely nothing I had ever heard of up to that point.  But the combination of those two songs made such an impact on me that I'm pretty certain, Van Halen I was one of the first audio cassettes (and it would end up being one of many that I would purchase because I so often wore them out) I ever bought and I would go so far as to say that Van Halen (at that time) really turned me on to buying music.  I remember listening to those early Van Halen albums over and over again. 

I don't think there are many guitarists I feel as strongly as I do about Jimi Hendrix but I would put Eddie Van Halen right up there on the same level as Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan is another one I feel pretty strongly about, just absolute masters of their crafts.  Damn this really sucks.  I don't really ever get worked up about celebrities passing but this one and Neil Peart passing this year really hurt, definitely an end of an era.

 
Just to add, and maybe I'm being presumptuous but Van Halen wasn't really a controversial band to like at all in the US during their best runs as a group. I don't think I've ever come across someone who said "I can't stand Van Halen" it's usually at the very least indifference. 

One of those very few bands you can say that about. 

 
I feel like I aged 10 years upon hearing this.  RIP. 

I read their band bio (Van Halen Rising) not too long ago.  Seemed like a really good guy. 

 

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