The moment Eddie Van Halen got to jam with his guitar hero
Despite being regarded as an icon of heavy metal, it’s well known that Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing was greatly informed by other players from different corners of the rock sphere.
Having had his musical epiphany thanks to being exposed to The Beatles at a young age along with his brother Alex, the Van Halen siblings would ditch their classical upbringing in favour of forming a rock-oriented group, with them eventually forming their eponymous band in 1972 and going on to release some of the most defining heavy metal records of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
However, despite his primary interest being in this field, Van Halen’s electrifying ability on guitar managed to court the interest of plenty of players from further afield, with infamous blues and jazz players often celebrating the innovative style that he proffered.
One such player who greatly admired what Van Halen was doing just so happened to be one of his own idols; someone who had been a source of inspiration since the earliest days of his career, and despite the duo never having managed to work together on a longform project, they did have the opportunity to share a stage together in what was a memorable moment for both.
Allan Holdsworth, formerly a guitarist with progressive rock band Soft Machine and jazz rock outfit Nucleus, was someone who Van Halen had always held in high esteem, given his obsession with rock music that was emerging from the UK during the 1960s. While Holdsworth would later go on to record primarily as a solo artist, their two paths crossed in the most unusual fashion in 1982.
Van Halen would later explain the incident, saying that he and Holdsworth had been friends, but had never managed to share a stage until one fateful afternoon. “I was in the process of helping him get a record deal, and somehow he ended up spending the night at my house,” Van Halen said of his guitar hero. “When we woke up, Allan said, ‘Shit, I have to be at GTI [Guitar Institute of Technology] at noon to do a seminar.’ So I raced him down there just in time. Before I knew it, I was onstage with him and his band, and we were both answering questions and playing together. It was quite fun, actually, and very interesting, especially for the students.”
The two would then collaborate again later that year, when Van Halen came on stage for Holdsworth’s show at the Roxy in Hollywood. Holdsworth later recalled that it was only a spur of the moment event, and that there hadn’t been an elaborate plan for Van Halen to join him, but that it ended up being a remarkable occasion.
“He came down to our first gig at the Roxy, and I was trembling in my shoes at the thought of all the people being out there,” Holdsworth explained. “I was talking to him afterwards, and I said, ‘We’re coming down in the afternoon to do another soundcheck. Why don’t you bring your guitar?’ We thought it would be a good idea to do a jam together at the end of the night, so we worked out one of Edward’s tunes. We finished our set, came back on and played this tune together. It was great. It was fun – kind of a nice contrast to the rest of the gig.”
The two were later meant to work together on what would become Holdsworth’s 1983 EP, Road Games, but due to Van Halen’s constantly busy schedule, he was unable to find the time to reunite with the man he considered to be his idol, and what could have been a fruitful collaboration between two industrious guitarists would never come to fruition.
