In a new interview with AXS TV, Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson talked about the late Eddie Van Halen, revealing what shocked her about him.
She also talked about a tribute song for Eddie, called ”4 Eddie”, which will be on her new solo album ”You And Me”:
“It’s a minute-and-a-half instrumental acoustic piece for him, a tribute to him because I was the first – when we were touring in the ’80s, he was like, ‘You’re really good on that acoustic guitar, you’re a really good guitar player on acoustic.’
“And I said, ‘Why don’t you ever play on acoustic?’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t really have an acoustic.’ I was like, ‘What?! You don’t have an acoustic? Well, you do know’ – and I gave him one.
“Then, flash to the crack of dawn, later that morning – that night – he calls up on my phone in the hotel room, you know, before cell phones, everybody had each other’s room numbers, which is a dangerous thing. [Laughs]
“He called me and he said, ‘Oh my god, I got this thing I wrote on this acoustic.’ He was up all night obviously, and he played it for me over the phone, and it was really gorgeous. I’m hoping somewhere it’s recorded because it’s one of the prettiest things I ever heard on a guitar.
“And so I tried to, I thought really hard about how to tribute him with a piece that my vague memory of what he played for me might’ve been sort of like that.
“So I made it kind of almost classical to start and it had to rock in the middle, and then kind of classical bookends with the ending, with the little interesting button at the end of that – I’m very happy with it.”