EXTREME's NUNO BETTENCOURT: EDDIE VAN HALEN 'Changed Guitar Playing Forever'

In a new interview with Tom Power, host of "Q" on Canada's CBC Radio One, EXTREME guitarist Nuno Bettencourt spoke about how he felt when he first heard Eddie Van Halen's classic instrumental "Eruption". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's the shot heard around the world, man. That's the real shot heard around the world. When Edward Van Halen, when we dropped that needle on 'Van Halen 1', and we didn't know what spaceship had landed, what happened, what alien that was, and he just changed guitar playing forever, period. In a good way."

Asked why Van Halen was the guy that changed his life, as opposed to someone like Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton, Nuno said: "Well, because a lot of the guys you just spoke about, which were incredible and still are incredible at their generation, let's say, possibly a generation before me, were doing things, as guitar players, as creatives, almost in what they played and stylistically. Edward did the same thing, but he did one thing a little bit different. He changed the sound of a guitar player. He changed it in an innovative way, so innovative on the types of things we were hearing that we were confused about. It wasn't just like a blues scale that Clapton or [Jimi] Hendrix might have played that had been around for a minute from Chuck Berry and everybody else, but they were just taking that to a different place. When we heard Edward, and I'm sure as quiet as they were, the Claptons and the and the Jimmy Pages of the world, I'm sure they were doing the same thing we were doing — putting it on and going, 'Okay. What is this? What is he doing? What is going on?' Even though the guys before them, they were incredible and they were game changers and they were influential, we could still visualize and we could still intellectualize where the fingers were and what was going on. When we heard 'Eruption', we were just, like, 'Wait a second. Wait a second.' Go back. Listen to it again. Listen to it again. It was just a different level of technicality, but also creativity, and it was just so innovative. And you know what? For me, that stuff, 'Eruption', was one thing. I'm talking more about the rhythm playing. Edward was doing something where all the guys before him, while they were playing their rhythm tracks, if a change to a section happened, it was always the drummer who did a fill, who did something to make a change. Edward was now — we were hearing a guitar player and going, 'Wait a second. We can also have fun with rhythm playing?' He's doing fills, almost like drum fills, going into sections, having fun and putting a smile on your face and really being creative and playing little vignettes of solos for — I don't know — a bar or two in between sections. That was something really fresh and new. It made you go, 'I can be creative with rhythm playing.' That was wild."

Back in September 2023, Nuno once again dismissed suggestions that his is Eddie Van Halen's heir in the realm of rock guitar playing. Discussing the late guitar legend's legacy in an interview with Tony González of Made In Metal, the EXTREME guitarist was asked to share his thoughts on being referred to as Van Halen's successor, to which he replied: "I think when somebody like Edward changes guitar that much, I don't think there will ever be anybody — not me, not anybody else — that is gonna take that throne. But for guys like me who were influenced by him, the best thing we can do is keep that torch alive, keep the guitar playing alive and hopefully keep passing it on to other generations as well. We definitely don't want guitar to go away in that way, and we want people to keep inspiring younger generations to play. So I'm hoping at the very least that's something I can do — on behalf of Eddie Van Halen."

Nuno went on to say that Eddie has been a huge influence on his playing. "I wouldn't be playing the same way, the way I play, if it wasn't for Edward Van Halen," he said. "I wouldn't be playing the way I'd be playing if it wasn't for Brian May or Jimmy Page or Randy Rhoads or Neal Schon or Elliot Easton from THE CARS. There's so many guitar players that make up a part of who you are. Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen — all these guys are influences."

Bettencourt previously addressed comparisons between him and Van Halen in June 2023 in an interview with Metal Edge. "I mean, I never asked for that," he said about being referred to as Van Halen's successor, "but listen, when [EXTREME's] 'Rise' [single and video] came out, I was getting some great responses on the solo and everything in general, and that felt really good. A lot of my peers and heroes, like Steve Lukather, Steve Vai and Brian May, sent me personal texts and e-mails after sharing the song, which was amazing. And then, I was starting to read everywhere that I was, like, 'the heir to the throne' that Edward left."

He continued: "I have to say that while that is gratifying, there is no heir to the throne of Eddie Van Halen. Nobody sits on that throne. Nobody takes that throne. Here's why it's different with Eddie: when a great guitar player passes, you just move on to another, right? But in this case, Eddie wasn't just a 'guitar player.' We're talking about a guy who changed culture and how we play guitar. He was like an alien coming in and fucking everything up so much that even the legends beforehand are like, 'Okay… what is happening here? What sorcery is this?'

"All I can say is that after seeing [Eddie] while I was working on 'Rise' and then hearing the news of his passing, I did feel a little bit of a responsibility," Nuno added. "It's not about me being 'the guy' or some great guitar player because there are lots of them, right? But I definitely felt that within my genre and my generation, I felt like that after Edward passed, I had at least a little bit of responsibility to set an example."

EXTREME's latest album, "Six", came out in June 2023 via earMUSIC. "Six" landed at position No. 10 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart with first-week sales of 12,500 copies. The set marked the band's first studio album since 2008. The act was last in the Top 10 with "III Sides To Every Story", which debuted and peaked at No. 10 back in October 1992.