Eddie Van Halen RIP

[EscapeRocks]

Just announced...

 

Eddie just passed away 65 years old. Apparently cancer had returned.

 

 

Dammit!!!!!!!

[RABid]

Awwww. I knew he was looking bad.

[TommyRude]

wow just saw this... man-o-man RIP

[EscapeRocks]

I was 15 when Van Halen came out in 1978. Wore out that vinyl and bought another.

 

They were a huge part of the soundtrack of my youth... and still are.

 

Kinda tired of 2020

[Keybass]

OMG!!!

 

How incredibly tragic.

 

R.I.P. Eddie.

[Muad’Dib]

Just found out!

 

R.I.P. Eddie

[synthetic]

Seriously depressed about this. Loved his music.

[Keysguy]

Another great talent gone too soon. How many of you have been in a music store and someone is playing Jump in the keyboard section.? RIP Eddie

[vonnor]

I just heard on fB. Very sad.

[ElmerJFudd]

I heard EVH for the first time 1979. I was just 8 years old, was learning piano classically, loved my dad's chuck berry and elvis 45s, I was dropping quarters in the juke box at the bowling alley to hear My Sharona 5 times in a row and my brother had brought home Queen's Jazz. Just 5 years later 1984 would hit as I was entering 8th grade. Bought it on LP and wore the thing out.

 

KC is granted permission to play Jump, transcribe Jump, post youtube videos of the Jump keyboard solo for the next month.

 

RIP EVH

[Stokely]

Ironically, as a keys player, I always liked their earlier (mostly) non-keyboard material.

Even more ironically, the guitarist in my band likes Van Hagar (full of keyboard) better than the older stuff

 

Man, stuff like this just makes you feel old. Van Halen was my very first concert experience, on the 1984 tour. It was quite the rough and rowdy experience as a 17-year-old, I remember thinking "where are all these people when the sun is out?!" This was back in the days of no assigned seating and let's just say "free and easy" drug use anywhere and everywhere. I just found a seat with my friend and tried to avoid notice, LOL, I was pretty damn scared of some of the folks I saw. Poor Autograph, they were the opening act and they had to stop the show due to bottles flying onto the stage, I specifically remember one bouncing off the keyboard. Years later, I saw them again with Sammy and the crowd booed BTO--not exactly a no-name--unmercifully.

 

I absolutely loved the first four VH albums and still do, and like many songs off the next two. Never warmed up to Van Hagar though.

[Delaware Dave]

Just played a bunch of requested VH this past Saturday at a private party. Funny though, no one asked for "jump".

[Outkaster]

That's really too bad.

[ChrisDespo]

Damn .... RIP

[GRollins]

I saw Van Halen on the 1984 tour. Good show. My ex-wife "fancied" David Lee Roth and I was interested to see if Eddie could do his thing live, as opposed to using studio wizardry. He delivered by the truckload, and then some.

 

Didn't hurt that Valerie Bertinelli was on the side of the stage, behind the PA stacks. Ran out and gave him a kiss, mid-show. Back then, she was seriously hot. (...whew!...)

 

Although I don't count Eddie as a direct influence on my playing style, he influenced people who did influence me (e.g. Billy Sheehan), so I got an indirect dose of his style.

 

Man, I confess that I'm 'bout near tired of 2020.

 

Grey

[Muad’Dib]

[video:youtube]

[TommyRude]

I recall when their first album came out, they shook the world.

 

I first saw them opening up for Black Sabbath at Anaheim Stadium, they were just blowing up huge. A helicopter flew over the stadium and 4 guys jumped out and parachuted down, and then Van Halen ran out on stage, pretty awesome! (don't think it was really them jumping... didn't matter)

 

One thing I remember clearly about that show - besides Eddie's guitar and David Lee's showmanship and just the whole electric atmosphere, their backup vocals were SPOT ON. Jamie's Cryin'... echoing across this massive stadium, huge crowd, AWESOME!

[TommyRude]

Here's some footage from a concert I think from the same first tour - 1978

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4S1FqHZzQ

[nursers]

RIP Eddie, definitely a big loss

 

As per Elmer's directive on Jump videos, here's a snippet from my band in Feb. We'd only half run through this at sound check (the guitarist and I had learned our bits at home prior) so was sorta happy with how it came out as a first full run through. The mashup with the other VH song was to avoid the middle section

 

[video:youtube]

[Docbop]

I remember Van Halen back to when they were the house band at Gazzarri's on Sunset Strip before they ever recorded. Even then the place would be packed with guitar players to see Eddie. Guitarists in L.A. already knew of EVH. A band I used to sub in and do sound a more funky band doing Joe Cocker and Buffalo Springfield and Soul music was asked by friends of the band to play in the Battle of the Bands at Pasadena High School. That was where EVH went to school and they were going to take a night off from Gazzarri's to play the battle at their old school. We knew no way we'd were going that popular with a Van Halen crowd, but they talked us into doing it. So we did it on one condition we'd be the first band to play, we wanted to get out fast. We show up to load-in and walk into the auditorium there is a massive PA and back of stage was covered in Marshall stacks, this was all Van Halen gear. We play and sounded good, but knew we weren't the type of music most of that audience wanted to hear, but we had fun. We load-out and hanging in the parking lot talking to friend and we end up being there until Van Halen went on. We couldn't believe how loud they were, VH's PA must of been cranked. Van Halen sounded good and the crowd was going nuts. We left after one or two songs. Next day we find out we didn't win the Battle, oh duh, but did come in second.

 

Living in L.A. there are all sorts of EVH stories. Where I live now there is a big blue house in the mountains outside of the city that is supposedly EVH's place and we he'd go to get away from L.A. but close enough to get to town when he needed to. Story has it when EVH was getting divorced from Valerie Bertinelli he was going crazy trying to keep her lawyers from finding out about this house so it wouldn't be part of the divorce settlement.

 

EVH you were a hell of a guitar player and creative soul, thanks for all your music.

[area51recording]

Me to 2020: You couldn't possibly suck more if you tried.... 2020 to me: Hold my beer....

[StevieDeepD]

I took this photo of EVH at the first Farm Aid, the night he and Sammy first played together. One of my faves. 2020 has been so hard. Body blow after body blow. I"m getting older, and we all gotta go sometime, but Lou Brock, Gibby, EVH...these are my heroes, damn it! So grateful that each touched my soul in a way that mattered...RIP, and thanks for the memories.

[ElmerJFudd]

The family has to get the guitar community out for an HBO special to tribute. Wolfie and Alex will have 0 problem getting Sammy and Dave to show up. Let Michael Anthony play the classic stuff. Steve Vai would do it, Paul Gilbert, Satriani, and tons of others. I am sure of it.

[Josh Paxton]

Just yesterday I spontaneously posted a joke I'd come up with on FaceBook: "If you ever recreated the Van Halen logo using HLIN and VLIN commands, it's time to schedule that first prostate exam." Never have I had a post age so poorly so quickly. RIP.

[MikeT156]

Maybe NOW we cam stop with the cracks about Eddie's KB work in JUMP. If you think THAT was simple, listen to what his bass player was playing during that song, It just goes to show a song doesn't have to be complicated to be a HIT record for the masses.

 

To bad about his early passing. I always loved their music.

 

RIP

 

 

Mike T

[KuruPrionz]

Here's some footage from a concert I think from the same first tour - 1978

 

Hmm... Fresno. I might have gone to that concert except I've never liked Black Sabbath (there, I said it) and probably had no idea who Van Halen was. So it goes.

 

They are bringing it, no doubt! Eddie is on fire.

[The Real MC]

Very first concert I saw was VH in 1978. They were the opening act for Ted Nugent - forgot all about Nugent that night. Saw them again in 1980. The 1978 YT video reminds me of the VH I remember - Eddie's pyrotechnics, DLR's stage theatrics (and forgetting the lyrics), Alex slamming the drums like a madman. Ah good times. Couldn't grow to like VH after 1984.

 

The first time I heard 1984/Jump on the radio, I didn't know who the artist was but thought the keyboard work was cool... when the DJ announced who it was I was in disbelief. No way...!

 

Eddie's no Keith Emerson but you can't deny his songwriting ability to come up with the monster hit Jump.

 

Sometimes our band get asked to play an extra hour. I always throw in 1984 as a cue to the band to play Jump. I nailed all the Oberheim sounds on the Andromeda. Best compliment I heard was "Many bands play Jump but I never heard anyone play the intro".

[TommyS]

RIP Ed,,,

[BRW]

Super sad! Cancer, man. But what an incredible life and legacy.

 

I find it kind of miraculous that he was also one of 'those guys' who couldn"t read music, didn"t know scales or music theory - yet did the things and the songs he did.

[UnderGroundGr]

Rest in Peace...