The fate of a gutsy genius guitarist

In 1977, the Disco Starwoods club in Hollywood was standing-room-only. There I was amazed by a four-member band I saw for the first time. Intense beats and roaring sounds that are the essence of hard rock. The volume of original songs they played touched my heart, but above all, the guitarist's playing style was something new that I had never seen before. Not only did he play all the riffs perfectly, but the way he played, hammering and pulling on and off, which I had never seen at the time, was astounding and like a streak of lightning out of a blue sky. After that, I chased the band and went to see them everywhere.

One day, I went to GUITAR CENTER in Hollywood. As I was hanging out at the big shop, suddenly, an unfamiliar guitar phrase rang in the shop with a roar. Obviously, the guitar amp was set at ten, and while applying natural distortion, he was able to handle quick pulls like bombing very easily. In the middle of the store, there was the genius guitarist who played the guitar without any hesitation, without worrying about the general public. That's Eddie Van Halen. That gutsiness can't be expressed in words. And in 1978, Van Halen made their major debut and swept the rock world.

Twenty-five years later, in 2003, I had the opportunity to see Eddie Van Halen again. Sound House became an authorized PEAVEY distributor, and by chance or mischievous fate, Peavey was selling Eddie's signature Wolfgang guitar. And from the second floor of the PEAVEY booth at the NAMM show held in Los Angeles, I was able to see Eddie's face for the first time in a while. At that time, Eddie was suffering from alcoholism and was hiding from the world. Eventually the band broke up, and he was drowning in alcohol from morning till night, and his body was ragged. With the news that Eddie was coming to the NAMM show, there was a long line in front of the Peavey booth. And he would be playing the guitar in the small hall set up at the booth.

The first words he spoke there... "I haven't played the guitar lately. I'm just playing the piano," he muttered, and he began to play the guitar. His playing was so terrible that I thought that this was the end of the genius guitarist's popularity. I was stunned. A sick body, with a drug-patient-like look, a lot of cursing and vulgar words that he keep spewing, is this the end of Eddie that I loved!? Thinking so, I remember feeling very empty for some reason.

Twelve years later, one day, Eddie gave a lecture at the Smithsonian Institute in the United States to a large number of people about how guitar playing had been revolutionized and how guitar design had changed. And he received a big applause. Eventually, his health recovered, he was completely different from what he used to be, he became chubby, and he had a happy marriage. Now in 2018, Eddie is already in his early 60s. His hair has turned white, but not only did he resume playing with the band, but you could also see a lot of smiles from him. He is loved by many guitarists, and Eddie Van Halen is often named as the number one guitarist of all time. Looking back on the past, many genius guitarists drowned in alcohol and drugs and lost their lives, here I would like to applaud Eddie for being able to crawl out of that abyss. Eddie, let the world know that genius guitarists can live a happy life!