Stars Pay Tribute To Van Halen At 2020 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Ceremony
Last night (7th November) The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame paid tribute to Eddie Van Halen, who passed away last month following a long battle with throat cancer.
The legendary guitarist was celebrated with a performance from Slash (Guns N’Roses), Kirk Hammett (Metallica) and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) all of whom recognised how much Van Halen had influenced their own guitar playing.
Slash noted that, “Eddie Van Halen was a tremendously gifted musician.” “His style and his sound were completely unique to him. He had a massive impact on guitar playing. I don’t think there’s anybody who’s picked up guitar since 1978 that hasn’t been touched in some way by Eddie Van Halen’s influence.”
With Kirk Hammett adding that, “Eddie Van Halen was amazing… Not since Jimi Hendrix had there been a guitar player that had so much impact and was so inspiring to me. He just explored the most simplest thing: a harmonic on a string and brought it into this realm of technique that no one even thought was possible. He was just, like, from a different planet.”
And Tom Morrello said, “Eddie Van Halen was the Mozart of our generation. He had the kind of talent that maybe comes around once a century. Eddie Van Halen inspired me to practice 20,000 hours to try to get within 100 miles of his inspired mastery of the guitar.”
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame event, which had been scheduled for May, was postponed due to the global Coronavirus pandemic, and was reworked into a virtual event featuring prerecorded features on HBO.
Elsewhere in the ceremony, Iggy Pop inducted Nine Inch Nails into the Hall Of Fame, while Ringo Starr read a touching tribute to T.Rex’s Marc Bolan – who died in 1977 – while inducting the late singer into the Hall Of Fame.