WORLD WITHOUT ED
OUR GUITAR UNIVERSE got kicked in the soul on October 6, 2020. That’s when we lost our king.
Edward Van Halen left this mortal world on that day. It was a world that he seemed only tangentially connected to beforehand. But when he left it, there was a huge, unexpected, devastating, EVH-shaped hole in that world.
Medical experts are divided on the severity of soul kicks. The consensus is they aren’t fatal, but they hurt really bad. You can recover from them, but it will probably take a long time.
That’s where we find ourselves. In a world without Van Halen. A world without Ed.
Say that again.
You never thought about it, did you? None of us did. And yet here we are. It was easy to think that Eddie Van Halen would live forever. Eddie Van Halen was bulletproof. He wasn’t just tougher than any other guitarist; he was cooler, stronger, groovier, better and cooler than any other guitarist. (And yeah, I said cooler twice. Because, well, EVH.)
Given that we have no choice but to think literally about a world without Van Halen, let’s take a step back and ponder figuratively a world without Van Halen. Think for a minute where we might be if Eddie Van Halen had not existed. Where would we be, as guitarists? There is no answer, but let’s just go ahead and ask the question.
Would your neighborhood have gone from one or two guitarists who strummed folk tunes or attempted Aerosmith or AC/DC covers to a neighborhood where every kid on every block pestered his parents into getting him an electric guitar (thanks, Mom!), and then somehow convinced those parents to let that kid and his friends play as loud as they could in their garage, because now they had a band and they needed to play all day, every day, because they were going to make it big?
WHERE WOULD WE BE AS GUITARISTS IF EDDIE VAN HALEN HAD NOT EXISTED?
No. That wouldn’t have happened. How do we know? Because your neighborhood had one guitarist before was released, and then, seemingly overnight, your neighborhood had a dozen guitarists who wanted to play in Van Halen–style bands. And that’s what they did. We all saw it, and we were all part of it. It was our “Beatles on ” moment. Things changed in an instant — because of a guy named
