It was Tuesday afternoon, October 6, 2020; I sat in silence and disbelief over the news that day. My phone rang and it was my old friend Harold from Pasadena, California where we had been friends since we were teenagers. I knew exactly why he called. “Did you hear about Eddie?” He asked. “Yes” I replied.
Harold and I first met when we were teenagers working at Leslie Organ Speakers in Pasadena. Since we both played guitar I invited him over to jam and was amazed at his lead guitar playing. As I suspected, he learned much of his licks from the incredible lead guitar player Eddie Van Haylen of Mammoth who we would watch at those free outdoor Pasadena parties of about 300 people. One day in 1974 we go to see them and the back wall behind them was covered by a large sheet with their new band name Van Halen. Everyone in town knew Eddie and Alex, they’d be at all the parties whether they were playing or just dropping in to get high with the rest of us. They played mostly cover songs, their originals weren’t very good back then, that’s why you never heard their flops like “I’ve got work to do” but they were growing and getting better. So, to his credit was David Lee Roth. Before that we would tease Eddie “So when are you going to fire Dave and get a real singer?” “Hey man,” Eddie explained, “it’s no secret, his father is bankrolling us so we need him for now.” Eddie was a shy introvert but friendly and down to earth as was his brother and they didn’t approve of Roth smugly looking down on everyone, including them. By 1975 the word was out: Van Haylen was now playing at Gazzarri’s, the famous night club in Hollywood. We knew they were on their way to the top and it was there that they were discovered by Gene Simmons who helped them get a recording contract with Warner Brothers.
Even after Van Haylen became superstars we would still run into Eddie, casual as ever, in the now defunct music stores in Pasadena. The last time I saw him was in 1986 when I was buying guitar strings at Piano and Organs music store on Colorado Blvd. The clerk saw who was approaching the counter behind me walking in and said “Well, Mister Van Haylen.” I turned around and said “Eddie! Are you here to buy another guitar?” “Nah, just strings” he said with his usual lovable Eddie smile. “Yeah” I said, “Cause there’s nothing wrong with the guitars you’ve got” (he had a lot of them, all very expensive).
Before we ended our phone conversation Harold and I made plans that he would come to visit me in Hawaii after this virus lockdown ends, as a part of our youth ended with the passing of Eddie. As always, I’ve got my equipment ready so we can jam, Harold on guitar, me on bass and an auto rhythm to cover the drums. We are going to jam just like we did in the good old days!
Goodbye Eddie, and thank you for all those fun memories.
-Drifter
