Me personally, I am totally saddened by this news. Ed meant so much to me, and pretty much every guitar nerd who ever heard him.

Eruption is playing very loudly at my house right now...

https://nypost.com/2020/10/06/eddie-van-halen-dead-at-65/

I have so few musician heroes. I like a lot of people but Eddie was always my favorite musician in the world. I would have used to say "favorite living musician," but that's now just "favorite musician." Ah, the great irony of it is that I got into keyboards because of him, not into guitar.

When I was 16, my grandma passed away and left me her Baldwin Fun Machine in her will, because I was the only kid among 9 that expressed any interest in it. I'd play it with her every time we'd visit. So when she passed, she had expressly written that it would be mine. I couldn't play anything other than the recorder at the time, and I learned to play keyboards on that Baldwin FunMachine. (And then broke into the Jehovah's Witness church next door at night and played on their piano, and then locked up when I left. Ah, so many blasphemous songs performed in that church at night on that lonely piano.)

And the very first song I ever played on that Fun Machine was "Dreams," and I wanted to learn it so badly, and then wanted to play it so badly. So I played it, very badly. I learned what was a one-hand part on two different hands, and could never play it correctly for years and years after. (It's kind of how I play Stick, too! One big hand across two.)

And then Jump, and I'll Wait, and the 1984 intro into Jump: all these got me into analog keyboards, and rock. (And seeing the band Journey as well on the Raised On Radio Tour. I wanted to be a rock star.)

But Eddie was the King. RIP, Eddie.

https://youtu.be/sZLKtjATZt0

Ed was a prolific musician, his influence is everywhere.

(On a side note, really cool that Dan Chapman's art is on a VH album!)

Maybe Emmett or whoever will pop in and share the story of Eddie trying out the Stick. All I remember is something about Ed showing up at SE, "...with a 6-pack of Mickeys" and spending the evening trying out Stick.

Oh well...the Stick didn't stick with Ed. Funny story though

So sorry to hear of his untimely death. I'm sure he would have gone on creating music that the world wanted to hear. I think he's one of those people who presses the go button and just goes, no restraints, until the task is complete.

He came to our house on Yucca Trail in the Laural Canyon Hills on two successive days,and yes, with 6-packs of Mickeys. He told me he was forming a duo with his drummer brother to record an album and wanted to learn The Stick fast.

Then he set upon the task, playing The Stick out of the sound system in my studio all day and repeating one song. I heard it developing fitfully on The Stick but non-stop in his head, that is, the music went on whether he was playing it or not. I thought it was an unusual way to learn an instrument or rehearse a song but I really liked the song.

He came back the next day and after a short conversation he did the same, same song too, I believe. He was supposed come back again for a third lone "session" but I heard that he collided with a car on Kirkwood Dr. coming up to our little "trail". I don't know if it's true, he might have gotten spooked and gone home. I never heard from him again.