“I said, ‘The winner is…’ and pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket – and said, ‘Edward… uh… Van Halen!’” Unseen footage of Eddie Van Halen and Leslie West's onstage jams and backstage hangs has been unearthed

Footage of Eddie Van Halen jamming with Mountain's Leslie West and Corky Laing at an LA club has found its way online. The nine-minute clip shows Van Halen joining Mountain onstage at the House of Blues in West Hollywood back in August 2002.

The professionally shot footage shows behind-the-scenes clips of the two Mountain members with Eddie Van Halen, an interview with Leslie West, and an onstage rendition of Never In My Life, from the 1970 Mountain album Climbing.

In the interview, West recalls how he and Van Halen became friends. “I was going to rehab in Milwaukee. I stopped playing for six months. So I met Ed and I introduced myself. After I saw him it got me playing again. He was kicking me up a notch,” he says, as transcribed by Louder. 

“So I called Randy Bachman. I said, 'How'd you like a rhythm guitar player for nothing?' I just wanted to get on tour. He said great and I went out on the tour, and Eddie and I played every night in the room afterwards and we became friends.

“He hasn't made any appearances for a long time. He knows how to play [Mountain classic] Never in My Life, one of my songs the right way I forgotten how to play.”

Eddie Van Halen x Mountain Unreleased Interview + Performance - YouTube

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In a 2007 interview with Guitar World contributor Andy Aledort, West revealed how this surprise Van Halen appearance at the House of Blues came about.

“A couple years ago, right after Eddie announced he had tongue cancer, he hadn’t played in a while and I invited him to the House of Blues in LA to come down and play with me. 

“At soundcheck, I invited people to come down and play, like American Idol, and I said if someone played well enough, they could come up and play on the show with us.”

He continued, “So, on stage that night, I said, ‘The winner is…’ and I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and said, ‘Edward… uh… Van Halen!’ Eddie came out and played Never In My Life with us.”

“When he plays it, he actually plays the part Felix [Pappalardi, Mountain bassist] played, and when he played the solo, I started laughing, because he is the best – there is nobody better than him. There are guys in that ballpark, but they’re not in Yankee Stadium, you know what I mean?”