The band Paul Stanley called a “gamechanger” for rock and roll
Rock music throughout the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s was a genre subject to change and innovation. It was a style of music that couldn’t sit still, as The Beatles dabbled, Led Zeppelin took the reigns, and then other bands such as Guns N’ Roses, Kiss, and Van Halen completely changed the way that people perceived rock music. Change was deeply necessary to keep the sound of music born from rebellion fresh, and some bands were crucial in switching things up.
Van Halen played a big part in changing how people approached rock music. The guitar was already one of the most important aspects of any good rock band, as a good riff and good guitar solo were seen as pivotal for any classic. Eddie Van Halen took what was already an essential part of rock and expanded upon it.
By frequenting the tapping technique, a new approach to riff-writing and soloing was born. People were no longer limited to the speed of playing. They were limited to a pick in their hand but could increase the tempo and make songs more energetic and exciting. This also led to an intense live show that was equally exciting, as Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth took the energy from their recordings and brought it to the live environment.
Paul Stanley was a huge fan of the sound that Van Halen brought forward, saying that you could hear the change in rock music when they burst onto the scene. “It sounded great on the radio. I mean, ‘Runnin’ With The Devil’ sounded ridiculous,” he said, “There are certain things that come along that are undeniable. It’s just a matter of watching the momentum as it goes along. When that album came out it was, okay, here’s a gamechanger, and every band that they played with suffered the consequences of having them opening. They were just a force to be reckoned with. You didn’t wanna follow that.”
Kiss bassist Gene Simmons was also a big fan of Van Halen’s live show, as he recalled the power of David Lee Roth as a frontman. He said that Roth took the frontman “To the nth level […] I mean, at that time, Dave was the king. There’s nobody. If Jagger stood next to him, it would be like, you know, a sixth grader. He really took it all the way, the whole band, the musicianship, the songwriting.”
It’s interesting to hear Kiss talk so openly about a live band that they felt intimidated by, as they were famously a live band who shook the foundations of rock to its core. Their large sound, paired with a reliance on pyrotechnics and flamboyance, meant that their gigs were more theatrical than any other gig out there, to the point that Tony Iommi said he regretted taking them on tour with him.
“Kiss was the first one to use pyro,” he said, “You’ve never seen that. I mean, the shock of that. And they were supporting us, so they weren’t even headlining. I went out and watched them. There were all these flames coming out the stage and everything. It was like, Oh my God, what’s going on here?’”
