GEORGE LYNCH: Seeing EDDIE VAN HALEN 'Up Close And Personal' In 1970s Was A 'Mind-Bending' Experience

In a new interview with The Music Zoo owner Tommy Colletti, legendary DOKKEN guitarist George Lynch recalled seeing VAN HALEN perform in Southern California clubs in the mid-1970s. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I saw UFO play with VAN HALEN at the Golden West Ballroom in Norwalk, California, near where we lived. We played there a lot. It was somewhat dramatic, because I don't know if UFO knew what they were in for. And I loveUFO — we all love UFO — but they got their ass kicked. I mean, they came up, and I don't think they were ready for that."

George went on to say that Eddie revolutionized rock in the late 1970s by introducing virtuosic, high-energy technical guitar playing — like two-handed tapping — to the Sunset Strip scene.

"There was a paradigm shift in the music universe," Lynch explained. "Well, to see it up close and personal as it was happening, in [Eddie's pre-VAN HALEN band] MAMMOTH and also early VAN HALEN, it was mind bending to see that in person. It was just insane. I mean, I'd just go to my studio or go home and just get on my guitar for eight hours and go, 'I gotta step up. This is insane.'"

Reflecting on some of the earliest Eddie Van Halen live performances he witnessed, George said: "I'd seen him when he was playing with a Les Paul through a Bandmaster or Bassman. And then the Music Man and all that period. And he was still amazing. He didn't have the tapping. He didn't have the bar. And it's still insane. And different. It wasn't Van Halen like you think of him now. It was a different thing, 'cause he had more of the [Eric] Clapton influence. It was a little more meat and potatoes, but it was still — I think, in a way, even cooler because we're so used to Eddie and what he does. But not very many people have heard that. And that, to me, is even more interesting, from a guitar player's perspective."

Lynch went on to credit Terry Kilgore, Eddie Van Halen's friend and inspiration in the 1970s, with influencing Eddie during VAN HALEN's early days.

"[Terry] was in REDDI KILLOWAT," George recalled. "It was a three-piece band that was… They didn't have [a great frontman like] David Lee Roth, they didn't have the image, they didn't have the looks, they didn't have the songs, but Terry was, I thought, maybe even better than Eddie. I think Eddie kind of took a lot of the stuff — well, not a lot, but some of the things Terry was doing, obviously, because they were friends."

During an appearance on an August 2021 episode of the "Appetite For Destortion" podcast, George was asked about the impact Eddie Van Halen's death had on him. He responded: "That hit me personally very hard, and every guitar player I know, pretty much, kind of felt the same way. As we get older, obviously, we're seeing people go away and pass. And that's just normal, of course. And we're seeing a lot of that. And so that's pretty profound. But, I mean, fucking David Bowie and George Michael and all these people — Prince — these giants… Tom Petty. It's, like, 'What?' All at once it seemed like. But Eddie was on another level, because, obviously, we're a little closer as far as what we do, and we kind of came up in the same place at the same time and had some connections and all that, so that's why it was more profound, I think. And I learned a lot from him, and I based a lot of my style on him. Even though we were compatriots in a way, he was way beyond me, so I lifted a lot of stuff from him and got inspired by him, as we all did. He's a Southern California guy, and we were like kind of neighbors and played the same clubs and played on the same stages together and hung out. [DOKKEN] did [the 1988] 'Monsters Of Rock' [tour with VAN HALEN, SCORPIONS, METALLICA and KINGDOM COME]… So, yeah, that was a pretty tough one. It hits close to home, too, I think, for us when our friends start disappearing, because it's a lonelier place after that."

Asked if he had any Eddie Van Halen stories to share that might "display the fun side of his personality," George said: "He was just incredibly shy. He was just a super introvert. I mean, all the guy did was just sit in his room and play guitar his whole life, and drink his beers and smoke his cigarettes, and developed what he developed. He changed the guitar world. I think he was just sort of burdened with this whole fame thing and being a human being in a complicated world. It isn't always so nice. He was a super-sensitive guy, which allowed him to be this incredible musician, as you have to have that sort of sympathy and empathy. A lot of people thought he wasn't that nice of a person, but it was just 'cause he was really quiet. He was a little bit scared, but he spoke so beautifully through his instrument.

"But we had moments," he continued. "We used to hang out. 'Monsters Of Rock', we'd go almost every night. When Valerie [Bertinelli, Eddie's then-wife] wasn't out, we'd jam. We'd just sit in our hotel room and just play guitar all night. It was pretty awesome. And actually, I had some issues with my gear out there on the 'Monsters' tour, and [VAN HALEN] were the headliner, obviously. And he was so sweet, 'cause he was, like, 'Hey, man, take anything you want of mine.' So I did half that tour with his gear. That's pretty insane, 'cause headliners usually don't do stuff like that. They're just, like, 'That's your problem. Figure it out,' which is fair. But he was very sweet: 'Just take anything you want — heads, cabinets.' I used his rig for, like, half that tour. It was pretty sweet.

"He gave my son a guitar lesson," George added. "My kid was going to GIT, and he wanted to be a guitar player like his dad. And I took him to meet Eddie at a show, and Eddie's, like, 'You know what? You're a guitar player? Let me show you…' So they went back in the warmup room and he gave my son a little lesson. That was pretty cool. Who does that?"

Lynch previously talked about Eddie's influence in a 2009 interview with Guitar Player magazine. Asked if he was jealous of VAN HALEN's success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, George said: "We were jealous and we were all trying to play catch up. We thought, 'Oh boy, we better get on board. This guy's going to change the world.' I remember my reaction when I first heard Eddie. I had been hearing about this guy with the weird European name. He's got a torpedo onstage, the bass player wears clogs, they have bombs onstage, and the guy's unbelievable. I saw him and it blew my mind. They were still doing covers at the time — RAINBOW, MONTROSE — and their original stuff was as good or better than their cover stuff, which was pretty exceptional. After their show, I went back to our band room and played my guitar until the sun came up. I thought, 'Man, how can I get that tone?'"

Asked if he tried to copy Eddie, George said: "What I really did was sort of bounce off his stuff rather than emulate it. I've done that with a lot of players. Instead of copying them, I react to them. I'll think, 'Well, Di Meola does this thing. I can do some alternate picking, so I won't copy it but I'll embed that a little bit into my toolbox and do it my own way.' I've tried to do that with any player who has influenced me: Clapton, Hendrix, Schenker, Eddie, Holdsworth. I couldn't play any of their stuff note for note to save my life, but I can capture the gist of what they're doing by being exposed to it. I can get the essence."

Eddie died in October 2020 at the age of 65 after a long battle with cancer.

Image credit: Tom deBlonk