Music journalist and Guitar Player contributor Steven Rosen has detailed a lesser-known side of Eddie Van Halen, and it’s an aspect that Eric Clapton once fell afoul of.
On stages and in music videos, the late guitarist was a perpetually animated, larger-than-life character.
But Rosen — who wrote the book Tonechaser about his 26-year friendship with Van Halen — says that behind his performances, he was “a pretty complex person,” and someone you didn’t want to cross.
“He was like this onion; you peel back layers, and there'd be another layer,” he says while guesting on Igor Paspalj's YouTube channel.
“The longer I hung out with him, I realized there were more facets to his personality. Music was first and foremost. There was never a single moment when I was with him that he truly did not have the guitar in his hand.
“He'd come over to my pad. I was a guitar player — not a very good one, but I had always had a couple of guitars.
“So the first thing he'd do was light a cigarette, and he'd go over and pick up a guitar and start noodling. Every single time.”
Eddie's relationship with the guitar bordered on obsessive, even if Sammy Hagar says it had been replaced by a love of cello in his later years.
“Whenever I went over to his place in Coldwater Canyon and he was out in the studio, he was playing, he was changing strings. It was always about the guitar,” Rosen echoes. “There were two major modes with Edward: my friend Edward, and Edward in musician mode.
“When he was in the musician mode and he needed to work, he needed to be by himself. It was almost an unspoken thing. I mean, I could sense it. He'd be playing, and you look over, and I just knew it. ‘Hey man, I'll see you later.’
“For Edward, respect was a huge thing. And if you disrespected him, he held on to that for a very long time.”
There were two major modes with Edward: my friend Edward, and Edward in musician mode.“
— Steven Rosen
For evidence of that side of EVH, just ask Eric Clapton.
Eddie’s love for Clapton’s guitar playing, particularly during his era with Cream, was revealed in Ed’s first-ever interview, with Jas Obrecht for Guitar Player magazine, in 1978. As Eddie's fame grew, it was inevitable he and Clapton would meet. When they did, in the early 1980s, they formed a friendship built of mutual respect.
But it began to unravel in 1986. While speaking to Musician magazine, Clapton criticized Eddie's guitar work on “Blues Breaker,” a 13-minute blues jam between him and Brian May that appeared on May's 1983 Star Fleet Project mini-album and was dedicated to him.
“They can't play,” Clapton said. “They took turns to play solos... and there was no dynamics, no build up, no sensitivity. I was very disappointed.”
Clapton’s decision to bare his feelings in an interview wasn't just poor judgment — it obscured the larger point he was trying to make: that playing blues is difficult, even for him.
The guitarists' relationship spiraled from there. Speaking to Dweezil Zappa for an interview in Guitar Player's March 1995 issue, Ed compared Clapton's contemporary guitar solos to “pissing up a rope.”
Once a grudge was established, it took a lot for Eddie to get down from his perch, which is likely why he was insistent on his son replacing Michael Anthony in the final iteration of Van Halen.
