In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Adrian Belew is more of a guy other guitar players know. He played with Zappa and toured with Bowie a few times as well as others. I mainly listen to classical music (it's playing in the background as I type this and pretend I'm working...) so I am familiar with the history of tapping.
Throat cancer you say?
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, he used to hold a metal pick in his mouth.
I heard a combination of smoking, drinking, and HPV are leading to a lot of mouth and neck cancer (e.g. Micheal Douglas).
David S. Wallens said:My friend Emon just shared this. At the 25-minute mark, EVH explains where the tapping came from.
I cought this interview a few months back. I was on a binge of VH documentaries. The guy was just the definition of cool.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to DrBoost :
Field trip tape swapping was THE BEST. I found so many great albums that way!
People always crap on "Van Hagar". I don't. They were different than Diamond Dave-fronted VH, but man, they were rock solid. 5150 is one of the best rock records ever made. I was actually watching some concert footage of their stop in New Haven CT on the 5150 tour on YouTube. They even play a few Hagar solo songs, and man, they shred with the Van Halen band behind Hagar!
Very different styles, the lead really did change the course of the band. DLR is great, has an amazing voice, but they always seemed campy, kinda sophomoric. Sammy matured then, for better or worse. Now, we won't even mention the third guy that never belonged on the same stage with the kid that mopped the stage after Eddy and the boys were done for the evening, let along playing alongside Eddy, Alex, and Michael.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Adrian Belew is more of a guy other guitar players know. He played with Zappa and toured with Bowie a few times as well as others.
He was also a key element in the '80s and '90s edition of King Crimson. He has several solo albums as well but he is better in the context of a band.
David S. Wallens said:Sorta related, but who is today are today's guitar heroes? If we're talking about performers who influence people to pick up the instrument, I'm putting Taylor Swift on that list. Seriously.
In popular music, there aren't many. Maybe Mark Tremonti? That might be a stretch. How about Zac Brown? I would absolutely put Taylor Swift on that list. Dave Grohl is definitely on that list as well and maybe at the top.
I will say this: there are TONS of them in Metal and Classic/Hard/Alternative Rock. If you are into that, there are plenty of guitar heroes to be had. There's old favorites, like George Lynch, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Kirk Hammett, Jeff Loomis, Alex Skolnick, Zakk Wylde, John Petrucci, Jerry Cantrell, Billy Corgan, Scott Ian, J. Mascis, and more. There are new ones, like Dave Davidson (Revocation), Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher (Mastodon), Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad, his solo stuff), and more. There are even some big YouTube guys with signature axes, like Ola Englund and Jared Dines. And some of the OG riff lords are still out there, like Tony Iommi, Jimmy Paige, and Ritchie Blackmore, although they aren't doing much these days. I think only Tony has a current signature guitar on the market.
I am hoping Eddie's death rekindles interest in playing guitar. We need more heroes.
DrBoost said:Tony Sestito said:In reply to DrBoost :
Field trip tape swapping was THE BEST. I found so many great albums that way!
People always crap on "Van Hagar". I don't. They were different than Diamond Dave-fronted VH, but man, they were rock solid. 5150 is one of the best rock records ever made. I was actually watching some concert footage of their stop in New Haven CT on the 5150 tour on YouTube. They even play a few Hagar solo songs, and man, they shred with the Van Halen band behind Hagar!
Very different styles, the lead really did change the course of the band. DLR is great, has an amazing voice, but they always seemed campy, kinda sophomoric. Sammy matured then, for better or worse. Now, we won't even mention the third guy that never belonged on the same stage with the kid that mopped the stage after Eddy and the boys were done for the evening, let along playing alongside Eddy, Alex, and Michael.
When I saw them in 2015, the main thing that struck me was how lazy DLR's vocals were. It was A LOT of pretty much spoken word while Wolfgang and Alex sang "backup."
DLR was a great front man, and show man, but Sammy actually sung.
Saron81 said:When I saw them in 2015, the main thing that struck me was how lazy DLR's vocals were. It was A LOT of pretty much spoken word while Wolfgang and Alex sang "backup."
DLR was a great front man, and show man, but Sammy actually sung.
This. As I've said, I've seen the band in all it's iterations, and I've seen Sammy and Dave as solo acts, and even when they toured together in 2002. Musically and vocally, Sammy blows Dave out of the water. Dave's gift is showmanship, charisma, and theatricality. He (was) an OK singer, but even by the early-to-mid 90s he was having trouble hitting the high notes. Now, don't take this as me dumping on Dave, I love him as a frontman, and pound-for-pound, the first six VH records have more great tracks on them than anything that came after. But Van Hagar was a pretty berkeleying good band, too.
Had a video conference call with my entire company today (I run our meetings) and forgot my copy of 1984 on top of the turntable last night.
That ended up causing a flood of RIP EVH messages to start coming in, most from people I had no remote idea were fans. People you would never think would even know who he was or who Van Halen was. It's easy to forget in this day and age how truly huge Van Halen was. There are no transcendental, nearly universally loved music acts today. To my knowledge, I've only met one person who didn't like some sort of version of them, and he was a Juggalo, so yeah...
David S. Wallens said:Sorta related, but who is today are today's guitar heroes? If we're talking about performers who influence people to pick up the instrument, I'm putting Taylor Swift on that list. Seriously.
Orianthi.....maybe not to the point of influencing ......but one helluva shredtress.....check it
I was going to mention her in the guitar hero thread. I expected her to become a big deal, but completely lost track of what she was doing in the last 10 years. I guess it's the type of music she plays.
Anyway, in 1978 I got the first VH album for Christmas. It was probably as far away from what I would normally listen to as you could get, and I think I gave it a fair chance, but I hated it. That didn't change through the 80's, and when I met the future Mrs. P, I quickly learned she was a metalhead, in love with Eddie Van Halen. I did what I had to do and put up with it, appreciating his talent and even liking a few songs like Mean street, and it worked out. A few years later our second son, Eddie was born.
Interesting story about VH helping out an aspiring 12 year old guitarist at a talent show.
“At about 12 years old, I had been playing guitar for about six or seven months, and I got really interested in the music of Van Halen and Randy Rhoads," he said. "Beause at 12, in 1981 or whatever time that was, that was the most popular music of the time.And all of the sudden one day after school, the phone rings and it’s some guy saying he’s Eddie Van Halen and he wants to talk to Frank. And I’m like, This is the greatest day of all time!”Dweezil’s mother, Gail, told him to get on the line to see if it sounds like Eddie, but as Dweezil puts it, “That was before MTV and before you could see interviews with your favorite musicians” [and know what they sound like]. With no way of knowing if it was really Eddie, Dweezil figured "what the hell?" and assured his mother it was him.
“Twenty minutes later, he’s at our house. He’s wearing the Women and Children First jumpsuit, and that is a bona fide superhero costume—I don’t know if you’re aware of it. He might as well have had at the smoke machines following him and the lights and the whole thing. ’Cause that’s all I saw, was like a superhero walk in the house. And I very politely demanded for him to play everything: ‘Eruption,’ the ‘Mean Streets’ intro…all the stuff.”
Dweezil then explains how after playing guitar for only nine months, he found himself recording “My Mother Is a Space Cadet,” with Eddie and Don Landee producing. The song, co-written by Dweezil, his sister Moon Unit and Steve Vai—who was in Frank’s band at the time—was his first single.
That led to Ed attending a talent show at Dweezil’s school and helping him with his band’s soundcheck and performance of “Runnin’ with the Devil.” Eddie not only showed him the right chords but even ran home to provide his own guitar for the show.
“That was full-service Eddie Van Halen,” Dweezil says.
The video of Dweezil telling the story and a few other things is here
Interesting piece on background of Eddie's yellow/black strat getting buried with Dimebag.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
I was firmly on the DLR side of things for most of my life. I liked a few of Sammy’s early hits, but I never dug deeper than that.
I was lucky enough to see one of the Sam & Dave shows about 10 or 15 years ago. Both were on the outs with Eddie at the time. The premise was that Sammy and Dave had made peace with one another and would go out on tour together. Each night there would be two separate shows, one with Sammy and one with Dave. They didn’t mix it up. Each one played some of their solo stuff and some of their Van Halen stuff. One night, Sammy would open, and the next night Dave would go first.
Again, I was firmly a DLR Van Halen fan.
Dave opened that night, and he was great. There were a lot of theatrics as you would imagine, with lots of girls on stage and Dave flying out over the audience on a cable and stuff like that. He really put on a great show. When he left the stage, I jokingly said to one of my friends, “I can probably go home now.”
But then Sammy came out. It was just him with a guitar and the band behind him. No theatrics whatsoever. And he absolutely tore the roof off of that place. I had never seen anything like it before. He was amazing. It was such a great night and I really came around to Sammy as a musician, entertainer and rock star in the truest sense of the word.
I still prefer the Van Halen of the DLR years, but I have huge respect for Sammy now, not that he needed it from me.
And as a side note, I think the whole Sam & Dave thing lasted about four shows before the whole thing imploded, probably due to Dave’s ego.
aircooled said:I heard a combination of smoking, drinking, and HPV are leading to a lot of mouth and neck cancer (e.g. Micheal Douglas).
My sister was a heavy drinker and she got throat cancer at 46 years of age. Something about laying down after drinking and issues with acid reflux. She was also a heavy cigarette and weed smoker (daily) from age 14 to 46. Her twin sister drank and smoked less and has had no issues.
I kinda think there was some cancer similarities then again what do I know.
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:In reply to Tony Sestito :
I was firmly on the DLR side of things for most of my life. I liked a few of Sammy’s early hits, but I never dug deeper than that.
I was lucky enough to see one of the Sam & Dave shows about 10 or 15 years ago. Both were on the outs with Eddie at the time. The premise was that Sammy and Dave had made peace with one another and would go out on tour together. Each night there would be two separate shows, one with Sammy and one with Dave. They didn’t mix it up. One night, Sammy opened and the next night Dave would go first.
Again, I was firmly a DLR Van Halen fan.
Dave opened that night, and he was great. There were a lot of theatrics as you would imagine, with lots of girls on stage and Dave flying out over the audience on a cable. He really put on a great show. When he left the stage, I jokingly said to one of my friends, “I can probably go home now.”
But then Sammy came out. It was just him with a guitar and the band behind him. No theatrics whatsoever. And he absolutely tore the roof off of that place. I had never seen anything like it before. He was amazing. It was such a great night and I really came around to Sammy as a musician, entertainer and rock star in the truest sense of the word.
I still prefer the Van Halen of the DLR years, but I have huge respect for Sammy now, not that he needed it from me.
And as a side note, I think the whole Sam & Dave thing lasted about four shows before the whole thing imploded, probably due to Dave’s ego.
I saw the Detroit version of that show. It was 2002, I remember because the game happened during the NHL Western Conference finals, and Sammy came out wearing a Red Wings jersey. It was the same thing for me, Dave opened, did a great job, but Sammy just blew him off the stage.
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