Eddie Van Halen’s seven favourite guitarists of all time
The late Eddie Van Halen was one of the ultimate guitar heroes. Securing his legacy in his namesake group, Van Halen, the guitarist would quickly establish himself as one of the finest to have ever picked up the electric instrument. He fused an immense natural ability with blistering pace and popularised now-ubiquitous techniques such as string-tapping and dive bombs, creating a tremendous musical heirloom that will live on forever.
It’s reflective of Eddie Van Halen’s impact that even Pink Floyd’s resident guitar hero, David Gilmour – one of the most influential axemen of all time – admitted that the American metal pioneer was the one guitarist he wishes he could play like. He told Guitar Player in 1985: “I can’t play like Eddie Van Halen. I wish I could. I sat down to try some of those ideas and I can’t do it. I don’t know if I could ever get any of that stuff together. Sometimes I think I should work at the guitar more. I play every day but I don’t consciously practice scales or anything in particular.”
Elsewhere, when speaking to Guitar World in 2022 to provide seven tips to make a “better guitarist”, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante analysed what made Van Halen such a legendary player. Not only did he state that the ‘Eruption’ guitarist was a “team player”, he also said: “Eddie Van Halen happened to have a flashy style, but he was a great rhythm guitar player, and he made those drums sound great. He made that bass sound great. He made the singer sound great. To me, it really doesn’t matter how much technique you have; the real skill in being a guitar player is in making the rest of the band sound good.”
Given that Eddie Van Halen is such an essential figure in modern guitar playing, today we’ve listed his favourite guitarists, as all did their bit to influence his distinctive and monumental style.
See the list of Eddie Van Halen’s favourite guitarists below.
Eddie Van Halen’s seven favourite guitarists:
Eric Clapton
Whilst several guitarists influenced Eddie Van Halen, there was only one he described as his ultimate icon, Eric Clapton. As far as the Van Halen guitar hero was concerned, it was the British blues rock master that he owes most of his career to, despite their styles being different. Clapton was so important to Van Halen that he asserted, “he made me pick up a guitar.”
Van Halen told Rolling Stone: “Eric Clapton is basically the only guitar player that influenced me – even though I don’t sound like him. He made me pick up a guitar”.
Elsewhere, Van Halen also said that the only band he’d ever followed properly was Clapton’s psychedelic trio, Cream, who gave the world classics such as ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ and ‘White Room’. He told Rolling Stone: “I’ve never been much of a fan of bands outside of Cream. I was more of a fan of their interaction live. They were an example of ‘What’s the difference between jazz and rock and roll? We just play louder’. That’s all. We get 12 notes…do what the fuck you want with ‘em”.
Allan Holdsworth
Another guitarist Eddie Van Halen mentioned as one of his favourites was British jazz fusion hero Allan Holdsworth. Everyone from John Frusciante to Alex Lifeson has cited Holdsworth as an influence, even the notoriously critical Frank Zappa once said he was “one of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet”.
Speaking to Jas Obrecht for Guitar Player in 1980, Van Halen said: “Allan Holdsworth, that motherfucker is fantastic, I love him. He’s got a rock sound. On the U.K.’s first album, ‘In The Dead of Night’, I love the solo on that. I love him, he is the best in my book. I mean, I can kind of play like him but it doesn’t fit our style of music. But he is a real artist.”
He said later in the discussion: “But Holdsworth, I’ve listened to all other kind of jazz guitarists too, who are very competent, very good but they don’t have the feel. They just don’t get me off.”
In an interview with Guitar World in 1981, Eddie Van Halen revealed that Holdsworth even influenced his song ‘And the Cradle Will Rock…’, the lead single from Van Halen’s third studio album, 1980’s Women and Children First. “The solo on ‘Cradle Will Rock’ is different. One guitar player who I respect and think is the baddest, is Allan Holdsworth. I do one short lick on ‘Cradle’ which is very spontaneous. That came out because I’ve been listening to this guy. On the second album, I expanded a little more on harmonics,” Eddie Van Halen explained.
Tony Iommi
Given his connection to the metal genre, it’s unsurprising that Eddie Van Halen named Tony Iommi, the resident six-string powerhouse of genre pioneers Black Sabbath, one of his greatest influences. When sitting down with Iommi for a Guitar World interview in 2010, it was revealed that Van Halen originally wanted to call the band ‘Rat Salad’ after the Sabbath song of the same name from 1970’s Paranoid.
He told the publication: “Yeah, that’s right. We played just about every Black Sabbath song. I used to sing lead on every Black Sabbath song we did – things like ‘Into the Void’, ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Lord of This World’. When we toured with Black Sabbath in 1978, they scared the shit out of us. I’ll tell you a funny story that I’ll never forget.”
He added: “To me, Tony is the master of riffs. That’s what I loved. I’m not knocking Ozzy or his singing, but listen to ‘Into the Void’. That riff is some badass shit. It was beyond surf music and jazz. It was beyond anything else I had ever heard. It was so fuckin’ heavy.”
Ritchie Blackmore
Another unsurprising figure on the list is Deep Purple and Rainbow shredder Ritchie Blackmore. Not only was he a master of early heavy metal, but he was also one of the first to heavily use the whammy bar, a technique that Van Halen ran off into the distance with.
Reflecting on some of his formative influences in Rolling Stone in 2011, Van Halen said of the former Deep Purple man: “Ritchie Blackmore I liked because of his vibrato bar use on Deep Purple in Rock (1970). Also, they come out with great riffs. I mean, come on, ‘Smoke on the Water’ is one for the history books.” Long before this, he had affirmed to Classic Rock in 1978 that Blackmore was the guitarist who got him “hooked on the whammy bar”.
Despite Blackmore criticising Van Halen in a 1991 Guitar World interview for initiating the “tapping movement” following the American’s death in 2020, he penned a heartfelt tribute to him. Blackmore wrote: “Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant guitarist who started a technique of guitar playing which was emulated by a whole generation of guitarists”. He even called him “the ultimate guitar hero.”
Pete Townshend
Much like every boundary-pushing guitarist of his generation, Eddie Van Halen was galvanised by the intensity and rhythmic strength of The Who’s bandleader, Pete Townshend. He told Rolling Stone in a 2011 interview that the Englishman’s “power and intensity” and “simplicity” really stood out for him when assembling his own distinctive approach.
He said: “Pete Townshend was an influence as a rhythm guitarist. It was just the power and intensity, and again, simplicity. You know, nothing was very complicated. Like, listen to ‘My Generation’ (Sings the main riff). Even the later stuff on Who’s Next, it’s all very power-chord based.”
Jimi Hendrix
Notoriously, Eddie Van Halen thought that the late psychedelic pioneer Jimi Hendrix was a slightly “sloppy” player and was also critical of his effects-laden style. However, he did learn something vital from the ‘Purple Haze’ star, which qualifies him for this list.
Van Halen told Guitar World in 1981 that Hendrix taught him how to hold the pick when playing harmonics. He explained: “Jimi Hendrix influenced me on how to hold the pick when I do the harmonics. I saw the Hendrix movie and discovered where the pick goes when it disappears. He holds it between the joints of his middle finger. I pick weird too. I use the thumb and the middle finger.”
Angus Young
The final entry on this list is AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young, a man whose riffs Eddie Van Halen made no bones about loving. Speaking to Forbes in 2020, the AC/DC co-founder explained that ‘Down Payment Blues’ and ‘Riff Raff’ were a pair of tracks by his band that the Van Halen legend particularly adored. Both songs are found on 1978’s Powerage, his favourite record by them.
Young recalled: “I remember that time because Eddie liked hanging out with Mal and Brian and Cliff. They liked going out and having a drink in the bar and stuff. But Malcolm used to say, ‘Eddie keeps going to me all the time, ‘You gonna do ‘Down Payment Blues’?”
Continuing: “He loved that song. In fact the last time I saw him was when we were touring. Brian said, ‘Come down to the shows.’ And that is the first thing he said, ‘You gotta do ‘Down Payment Blues?” He liked a lot of, ‘Riff Raff’ and tracks like that”.
When speaking to Billboard in 2015, Van Halen confirmed Angus Young’s claims. He listed ‘Down Payment Blues’ as one of his favourite riffs of all time. “One of my all-time favourite AC/DC songs of an album called ‘Powerage’. Just the power. The sheer… it’s just engulf you. You just feel it. It makes you vibrate,” Van Halen effused.
