Yah he had a rough go of it with cancer for quite a while..

I got to meet him once since my girlfriend at the times best friend knew Alex's wife really well so got the whole VIP backstage thing.

As a kid who grew up playing guitar it was like meeting a real life super hero and I was shitting myself nervous (which is not like me)

He could not have been any nicer or cooler to me... Alex was kind of a dick though.

A more rare one ( at least back in the day) is the Starfleet EP thing he did with Brian May.

You want to hear him just rip it up and wing it on some blues etc this is a good listen.

100% one take and live and I am sure he's half in the bag ( I think the insert even had him and a Schlitz malt in one pic) but its one of my favorite things he did

Its on you tube..

A friend of mine showed me how to do the tapping bit (or part of it) because he had two older pot head brothers that had learned it somewhere.

I just remember being amazed at how "easy" it is to do because it sounds like so much is going on... on the record with the Phase 90 on it etc it sounds like a spaceship taking off or something.

He seemed to think so... its all over the first record.

Hopefully his son sort of takes up the cause like Zappas kid did and starts going through the vault and putting stuff out.

There is a shit ton of unreleased music since he had his own studio and was always in there recording.

Oh lord I hope not... I have zero interest in hearing anyone but him play those songs.

If I want to see people hack those up I can go on you tube.

This guy cracks me up... he's just jerking around but its pretty funny anyways.

I was able to find these since I had mentioned this earlier... had no idea where they were

As I had said earlier he was super nice to me.... Im sure he could tell I was nervous as hell meeting him.

Only thing that was kind of a drag was there wasnt much room side of stage so I watched most of the show from behind his amps looking at his ass.

Other fun note is that they all hated each other by then so Hagar and Anthony showed up just before show time and left right after in a separate car.....

I saw Hagar walk right by Ed pre-show and not even look at him. lol

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I dont get that kind of shit... I mean who cares? is there a law you have to be a great person or perfect to be famous or a genius?

Michael Jordan by most accounts is one of the biggest assholes alive but that doesnt take away what he did.

Hes just a person like any other and had tons of issues with addiction etc.

I never said he was a saint, I said he was nice to me. For all of a minute or two, but he didnt have to be and Ill remember that until I croak too.

Jimmy Fallon may be the phoniest person on the planet... Ive never seen someone who falls over laughing at literally anything any one says.

I cant remember a single thing I said to Ed Van Halen. I do remember he said "Hi Im Ed" and I was like.. um... no shit?

I met Les Paul once too at the iridium in NY and told him it was better then meeting the pope.. that cracked him up so thats was fun.

He was entertaining and surprisingly good for a guy playing with two fingers and drooling on himself later on.... he talks allot and makes fun of himself.

But yah he would sit around and sign stuff after every show.. more so in the earlier years early 90s when he was at a place called Fat Tuesdays he would just sit at the bar and you could walk right up to him and shoot the shit.

That happened to me at the bottom line also.. I went to see Alan Holdsworth (speaking of EVH) and he was just standing at the bar before the show having a few beers so I said hi. There was maybe 25 people at that show..

You missed his bass playing?

hate to break it to you but he didnt play bass on allot of their records to begin with... Ed played it.

On most tunes he told him what to play anyways, on Fair warning and after Ed did allot of the bass himself.

Sweet jesus... my brother came home with that cassette one day and I really had concern for his mental health because he liked it.

worst shit ever committed to tape... after every Bon Jovi record.

Easy to not age when you have made millions upon millions for just showing up and playing the bass.

Damn man you are lucky... i was too young in 1980 and 81 to see them but to me those were the two best tours where they were killin it.

There are a few boots around..

yah thats a fact... pretty sure Ed played most of Fair Warning bass himself.

I dont blame him.. easier to just do it yourself than spend a day showing someone how some crazy ass tune goes.

Even if he didnt play the bass I am sure he pretty much told him what to play.

yah turning on all your effects, making elephant noises and rolling around on the floor is a true sign of a master.

I give credit for being the first person to ever say anyone did a "killer bass solo" though

for most of the planet that is the "cool I can go take a leak or get a beer" portion of the show (including the rest of the band).

well not everything is about wanky guitar shit...

guy writes some good riffs and had good tone which is way more important then going weedly weedly on guitar

Van halen was the rare guy who can write and go weedly weedly at a high level, most flashy guitar players cant write to save their lives.

Plus I think he's like 85 years old or something.. miracle he can play at all.

Man I want to like this because I love the idea of it but its so overproduced.

Sounds like Nickelback or something

And its like 30 minutes long or something... their records were really short but you always felt like you got your monies worth.

Can you imagine? I think Kiss is a hoot live and all that but someone of EVH ability playing on those dumbass songs?

Most Kiss songs sound like Spinal Tap B sides.