“I didn’t know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, “Look, I changed the middle section of your song.”
Now in my mind, he’s either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he’s going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, “Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.”
That was a conversation between Eddie Van Halen and Michael Jackson after Eddie Van Halen had recorded the guitar solo on Beat it. Like David Deal said in a column by fusing Rock and R&B Eddie Van Halen helped Michael Jackson become more culturally relevant with Beat it.
Eddie Van Halen's contribution to the world of music is extraordinary. Even more so his contribution to the guitar and inspiring hundreds of thousand’s of people around the world.
Paul Brannigan is a former editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine, and a current contributor to MOJO, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Kerrang! and Louder. He has previous written books on Dave Grohl, Metallica and much-missed Motorhead legend Lemmy.
I caught up with Paul from his home in North London to talk about his new book Unchained: The Eddie Van Halen Story,. In an hour long conversation filled with humour and insight we reflected on how he put this book together and we then delved into the Van Halen story, one of immigration, opportunities, imagination, and hard work. As we reflected upon the time Paul first met Eddie we also spoke of things that I was very curious about like the influence of his brother Alex on the band and on Eddie, his son Wolfgang Van Halen and of Eddie’s love and respect for his family.
Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6, 2020 in Santa Monica, California after a long battle with cancer. , The Van Halen story is quite a dramatic one but one that Paul has tackled with respect and affection in his book, pairing original interviews with meticulous research to bring to life the story of a genuine musical virtuoso who changed the course of rock ’n’ roll.
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Paul's book Unchained - The Eddie Van Halen story is now available across the world and online and available in multiple formats.
https://www.amazon.com/Unchained-Eddie-Van-Halen-Story/dp/1637583508
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