“When Van Halen came out, I thought it was the greatest sound I’d ever heard. Eddie was like, ‘Nah, I never really liked the sound of that record’”: Mike McCready recalls meeting Eddie Van Halen – and tries his hand at playing Eruption off the cuff

Mike McCready has described Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing as “music from another planet” in a recent conversation with SiriusXM, which saw the Pearl Jam icon try his hand at the late guitar legend's iconic instrumental, Eruption.

As part of the promo trail for the Seattle outfit’s 12th album, Dark Matter, the band recently guested on the Howard Stern Show. During the interview, McCready was asked about his long-standing love for Eddie Van Halen. 

“It's music from another planet to me,” he says. “I started playing guitar right when Van Halen [1978] came out, so it didn't really make any sense to me but I thought it was the greatest sound I'd ever heard.” 

Asked if he’d ever met Van Halen personally, McCready responded: “Only when we were doing our Lightning Bolt [album, released in 2013] in Los Angeles. He happened to be in the hall one day, and I happened to be listening to the first Van Halen album on the way to the studio.” 

He admits that he began to fumble his words, starstruck even with nine Pearl Jam albums and a Grammy win under his belt.  

He told Eddie that he’d “been listening to the first record, it's incredible.” Van Halen's reply? “Nah, I never really liked the sound of that record.” 

It’s a surprising but humble admission about a record that included Eruption, a song hailed as one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. Wolfgang Van Halen, however, recalls the exchange slightly differently – and with a few more expletives. 

McCready then treated Howard Stern viewers to his take of the incendiary track, sheepishly saying, “It’s really early Howard, so I don’t know it as well as I want to!” 

McCready previously burned through a cover of the track back in 2022, and has spoken to Guitar World about how important Van Halen – and Eruption – have been to his own guitar playing.

“Eddie Van Halen to me was a huge deal,” he said at the time. “I started playing when I was 12 years old and that’s right when his first record came out, and it was unlike anything I had ever heard.

“Eddie was another version of a guitar hero that felt like he came from outer space or something. Like, ’What is this? What is this Eruption thing?’”