During a recent interview, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt recalled the time he met the late guitarist Eddie Van Halen through his bandmate Gary Cherone.
Bettencourt added that neither he nor anyone else is to be worthy of replacing Eddie Van Halen:
“A lot of my peers and heroes, like Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, and Brian May, sent me personal texts and emails after sharing the song, which was amazing. And then, I was starting to read everywhere that I was like, ‘the heir to the throne’ that Edward left. […]
“I have to say that while that is gratifying, there is no heir to the throne of Eddie Van Halen. Nobody sits on that throne. Nobody takes that throne.
“Here’s why it’s different with Eddie: when a great guitar player passes, you just move on to another, right? But in this case, Eddie wasn’t just a ‘guitar player.’ We’re talking about a guy who changed culture and how we play guitar.
”He was like an alien coming in and f*cking everything up so much that even the legends beforehand are like, ‘Okay… what is happening here? What sorcery is this?'”
5 comments
Nuno knows who the Master will always be. Smart man.
thank God Nuno made a comment on this. It was Rick B that made a statement that Numo was kind of the guy now. I thought what are you insane. Numos f’ing amazing but I dont think hes anywhere near EVH
Good job Nuno at least you came out and said
Something to shut this down.
I was a guitar player at 18 years old in 1978 when VH first album came out, trust me nobody will ever be able to sit in the seat that Eddie sat in, I will use this as an example, tell me how anyone can invent another eruption? What would they call it? Eruption 2.0 if someone came up with anything resembling eruption it wouldn’t be a original idea, everyone would have to say there’s only one version of eruption and it was Eddie’s period, same with every other thing he did, it’s Eddie’s no matter who you get to try to replace him, Eddie set the standard and that’s just the way it is. Many, Many other great guitar players but nobody will ever touch what Eddie Van Halen did in this world, I mean “NOBODY “! R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen
I commend Nuno for what he said. I have been a guitarist and keyboardist for 40 plus years. I have tried to emulate both Eddie and Nuno. Both of my parents were musicians, as were all 5 of my brothers and sisters. Having given you my background, I think I feel safe in giving my opinion. Edward VanHalen was the Nichola Tesla of our time. He was a music inventor, ahead of his time. NO ONE sounds like Eddie, and everyone knows it. It is pretty cool that Wolf VanHalen is doing his thing.
Eddie was great but to say there will never be another come along and change the guitar world is ridiculous. That has been said before about many other great guitarist but there is always greatness yet to be found.