BLACK VEIL BRIDES' ANDY BIERSACK: EDDIE VAN HALEN 'Singularly Created The Idea Of A Guitar Hero'

January 12, 2021

In a recent interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, BLACK VEIL BRIDES singer Andy Biersack was asked for his thoughts on the passing of Eddie Van Halen. He responded (hear audio below): "You know, it's one of those things where it's actually kind of funny — I wasn't a VAN HALEN fan as a kid, and not for lack of trying. My dad, who introduced me to KISS and all the other bands that I ended up listening to, was always trying to get me to like VAN HALEN. But there was just something about [David Lee Roth] that just didn't connect with me. And as an adult, I kind of found it later and grew to really love and appreciate what they are as a band and how important they were.

"Obviously, there's a lot of things that play into KISS where Eddie played on 'Christine Sixteen' and a number of other songs, and obviously, [VAN HALEN] was originally discovered by Gene Simmons, and he tried to sign them, and they were basically turned away by the original management company, saying that this band wasn't gonna succeed," he continued. "And I've also resonated heavily, personally, with kind of their story in the sense that — not to take it away from Eddie too much, but when it comes to David Lee Roth, he's someone that when he first started, people said he couldn't sing, and he had a very different kind of voice, and they said he wasn't going anywhere. And when we first started, that was the same sort of critiques that we were getting — that we had amazing guitar players but the singer can't sing. That was one of the things that we heard all the time. So, I can really relate to their story in that way.

"I'm in my living room right now, and [my wife] Juliet [Simms] and I have these pictures all around our living room of the cream-of-the-crop rock stars. And we've got all these framed photos of their mug shots. We always just thought it was interesting because — to get to see these stars that we grew up with and see that they also did things that were crazy. 'Cause sometimes anybody, you feel, man, did I make the right decision? Or, maybe that song was terrible, and is this going to ruin everything? And we kind of liked the idea — we have all these art pieces in our living room of [David] Bowie and Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix, and all the kind of main stars. And as I look around this room, so many of them have now passed, and it's truly a bizarre feeling to think of these incredible mammoths of rock.

"I always think when rock stars roamed the earth, all these pillars of the culture that I grew up in and idolizing, the fact that so many of them are gone is just heartbreaking," Andy added. "And I don't think you can ever possibly even speak to the level of importance that Eddie Van Halen had without even underselling it, because he kind of singularly created the idea of a guitar hero and that style of guitar playing and created a style that had never been heard and then was immediately replicated or tried to be replicated by everybody under the sun after that. And that is extremely unique and extremely important. And it was a huge loss for the rock community, and a huge loss for the world."

Eddie died on October 6 at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

VAN HALEN was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Eddie Van Halen No. 8 in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists.

BLACK VEIL BRIDES sixth full-length effort, "The Phantom Tomorrow", will be released later this year via Sumerian Records.

Find more on Black veil brides
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).