By the time he arrived on the scene, it seemed like it had all been done. Everyone from Les Paul to Link Wray to Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page had had their way with the electric guitar.
But with his few first explosive notes of “Runnin’ With the Devil,” Eddie Van Halen almost literally blew people’s ears back.
That 1978 Van Halen debut album would include “Eruption” — a minute and 42 seconds that changed the whole dialogue about the electric guitar and put him high on greatest guitarist lists for eternity.
Eddie Van Halen, who died of throat cancer Tuesday at 65, wowed people on stages for more than 30 years.
“This is a huge loss for the music and guitar community,” says Walter Ino, who played in the Pittsburgh bands Seventh House and Strangeway before joining Eagles of Death Metal. “He wrote some of the most iconic guitar parts and rock songs.
“He’s known for his amazing flashy lead work, but I always admired his rhythm guitar work and gravitated to learning those parts. Not only because his solos were so intimidating, but they were truly his own original voice that couldn’t truly be duplicated. I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“He broke the whole thing wide open,” says Nathan Zoob, of Wreck Loose. “It’s ‘Before EVH’ and ‘After EVH.’ Even when his style isn’t in fashion, we’re still living in his world.”
Pittsburgh’s first glimpse of Van Halen was March 12, 1978, at the Leona Theater in Homestead on the bottom of a bill with Montrose and Journey, a month after the debut album was released. Later in the year, the band hopped on tour with metal pioneers Black Sabbath, turning up to play the Civic Arena in September.
Sam Matthews, who works at Pittsburgh Guitars, told the Post-Gazette a few years ago that he watched from Eddie’s side of the stage when the musician performed “Eruption.”
“My mouth kind of dropped as I had never seen anyone use that tapping technique before. It was really revolutionary at the time. ... I’ve seen hundreds of concerts, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a headline act take such a beating.”
It wasn’t even a year before Van Halen was headlining the Civic Arena and then moving on to stadiums, including the infamous Monsters of Rock show at Three Rivers Stadium in 1988.
“I’m forever in his debt for inviting us to appear on the bill with VH on Monsters of Rock,” says Pittsburgh guitarist Danny Stag, of Kingdom Come. “I’ll never forget hearing him do ‘Eruption’ while I sat on the stage. Two hundred, fifty thousand watts of magnificent electric thunder and lightning. No one did it better.”
One of the things that set Eddie apart from so many of the post-Hendrix guitarists was his relative restraint. He was a master of the short, fast, burst — like the one he tacked onto Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” — and was committed to playing within the context of the song rather than taking off on long jams.
For his famous “Frankenstrat,” he applied a Gibson pickup to a Stratocaster neck and body. He held the pick between his thumb and middle finger, something he got from Hendrix, so he could tap with his index finger as well as his left hand, unleashing a harmonic storm.
“EVH was a huge deal,” says Dave Kuzy, of Microwaves. “Lots and lots of folks who didn’t necessarily like a lot of their contemporaries in popular heavy rock/hair metal loved Van Halen. People understandably focus on his soloing and tapping skills, but the speed wouldn’t have meant much without his phrasing and rhythm playing. His right hand is the equal of nearly any guitarist known for their rhythm playing.”
Van Halen, who befriended the Granati Brothers and took them on multiple tours in the early years, made his final Pittsburgh appearance on the 2015 tour that stopped at the amphitheater in Burgettstown with David Lee Roth on vocals.
“Most guitarists don’t play like him and will never even try because they claim his technique is out of style,” says Vinnie Longhi, of Pittsburgh band Semi-Supervillains. “Well, maybe it is, but here’s the hard truth — they are hiding behind that claim because they will never even come close to his creative talent level, timing or pure harmonic feel for the guitar plugged into an amp with everything dimed.”
“My dad took me to see Van [Hagar] Halen at Star Lake in August of ’95,” says Drew Donegan, of the Pittsburgh band Gene the Werewolf. “It was my first concert, and I remember literally wishing away my summer waiting for it.
“It was that moment I decided I wanted to play rock ’n’ roll and dream of being able to achieve a small fraction of Eddie’s untouchable style, finesse and technique. Total jaw-dropping experience. More than my 9-year-old brain was able to comprehend.”
“Eddie is to guitarists what Neil Peart was to drummers,” says Shawn McGregor, of The Commonheart. “Showed a whole generation and then some what was possible on the instrument.”
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com.
First Published: October 6, 2020, 9:07 p.m.
