“That was the coolest thing about Eddie for me. That’s why nobody could ever touch him”: Slash explains why Eddie Van Halen was really a blues player at heart
Van Halen's boundary-pushing rock guitar style was defined by unprecedented fretboard acrobatics – but underneath all that was a humble bluesman, according to the GNR guitarist
(Image credit: EDUARDO VALENTE/AFP / Ross Marino/Getty)
During his lifetime, Eddie Van Halen pioneered some of the most innovative approaches to the electric guitar with some boundary-bending techniques.
From taking two-hand tapping to unprecedented heights, to harmonics and dive bombs, Van Halen’s expansive playing style is often heralded for its adventurous fretboard acrobatics.
However, according to Slash, underneath all that flair and six-string showmanship was a humble blues guitar player, who had merely used the blues as a launch pad to help him venture into uncharted guitar territory.
“That was the coolest thing about Eddie for me,” Slash explains in the new issue of Guitar World. “All the great ideas he had that were uniquely his own, all these left-field kind of things, underneath all that was a really tasty blues guitar player.
“He just added all these other ways to branch out his expression on top of that. And that’s why nobody could ever touch him.”
Slash’s observations that Van Halen was really a blues player at heart are accurate. Van Halen himself was never shy about citing Eric Clapton as his biggest inspiration, and on numerous occasions highlighted how Slowhand’s simple approach to style and sound actually informed his own style, which, at least on the surface, seemed to be the complete opposite.
“Eric Clapton… is at the top of my list,” Van Halen once responded in an interview with Rolling Stone when asked about his influences. “What attracted me to his playing and style and vibe was the basic simplicity in his approach and his tone, his sound.
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“He just basically took a Gibson guitar and plugged it straight into a Marshall and that was it. The basics. The blues.”
Sure, Van Halen had other influences – from Tony Iommi to Peter Green and Jimmy Page – but for him, “the only guy solo-wise was Clapton to me”.
Eddie isn’t the only rock guitarist to have taken the barebones of blues and used it to develop their own expansive style. Many players have done exactly the same, and that, as Slash goes on, is the true sign of a great guitar player.
“That’s what I’ve always been attracted to,” he continues in his Guitar World interview. “It doesn’t matter whatever technique it is that they’re using, as long as it’s theirs. I mean, Yngwie? Yngwie means it. He fucking owns that shit, whether you like it or not.”
The GNR guitarist is joined on the cover of the new GW issue by Samantha Fish and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, who will both be hitting the road with Slash – and a host of other guitar greats – for the S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival.
Slash w/Samantha Fish & Christone "Kingfish" Ingram | Behind-The-Scenes Guitar World Photoshoot - YouTube
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
