Dokken guitarist George Lynch has recalled watching Eddie Van Halen play up close in the ‘70s, and how his chops humbled even the formidable musicians of English hard rock outfit UFO, who Van Halen supported during a show at the Golden West Ballroom in California in 1976.
“I saw UFO play with Van Halen at the Golden West Ballroom in Norwalk, California, near where we lived. We played there a lot.” Lynch tells The Music Zoo owner Tommy Colletti in a new conversation [via Blabbermouth].
“It was somewhat dramatic, because I don’t know if UFO knew what they were in for. And I love UFO – we all love UFO – but they got their ass kicked. I mean, they came up, and I don’t think they were ready for that.”
Lynch goes on to recall the “paradigm shift” in hard rock brought about by Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing and how he spearheaded two-handed tapping’s foray into the mainstream.
“To see it up close and personal as it was happening, in Mammoth [one of Eddie Van Halen’s pre-Van Halen bands, not to be confused with his son Wolfgang’s active band of the same name] and also early Van Halen, it was mind-bending to see that in person. It was just insane.
“I mean, I’d just go to my studio or go home and just get on my guitar for eight hours and go, ‘I gotta step up. This is insane.’”
Elsewhere, blues ace Joe Bonamassa recently pondered whether Eddie Van Halen would have been as cool if he were to have used an amp modeller like a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, as opposed to the vintage analogue gear that was available to him at the time of Van Halen’s heyday.
The guitarist and avid gear collector said: “Instead of a 68 plexi with a laydown transformer, a Univox [EC-80A Tape Echo], and MXR Phase 45, a [Marshall] basket weave cabinet, and a Boogie Bodies Strat, imagine if the same Eddie Van Halen showed up with a Neural [Quad Cortex] and a Suhr.”
He asked, “Is it as cool? I’m not knocking John Suhr, I’m not knocking Neural… Great invention, but I just pose the question. People hear with their eyes. It’s the whole thing.”
Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of Guitar World, Total Guitar, Metal Hammer and MusicRadar.