A small crowd were lucky enough to experience an interview with the legend himself and personal guitar inspiration Eddie Van Halen at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as part of ‘What it means to be an American‘. EVH fans will have heard many of the stories before but Eddie was open and honest more so than I’ve seen him in many interviews and he also hinted that his son Wolfgang is going to release an album later this year, “It blew my mind”, I hope it is a solo record! though he may be referring to the new Tremonti album that he has just finished recording Bass parts for.
I thought it was particularly interesting hearing how a 16 year old Wolfgang touring with Van Halen inspired Eddie to finally quit drinking, “…he gave me the strength to be able to do that”, says Eddie, “I got sober during that first tour and I was so nervous and everytime I looked at my son I thought ok if my 16 year old son can be kicking ass like that I better suck it up!” I hope that people who keep saying that they want the original VH lineup can now understand exactly what it means to Eddie to have Wolfgang in the band.
While at the National Museum of American History Eddie donated an exact replica of his original black and white Frankenstein guitar, an EVH Stealth Guitar, and an EVH 5150III Head & Cab during a closed ceremony, which took place right before his speech/interview.