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RIP Eddie

Wed, 10/14/2020 - 5:00 am

There were times in my life where I didn’t want to be a sports writer.

At one point I considered being a priest, or a lawyer, or even a ROCK STAR! That first began the night I saw Led Zeppelin at the Pontiac Silverdome. Just watching Robert Plant in action was a wannabe rock star’s dream.

I told my dad leaving the show I wanted to be a rock star when I grew up. He said there’s just one problem with that: you can’t sing.

I said I wanted to take voice lessons. Dad informed me that’s more for people with rough spots and that actually had an okay voice.

Hmmmm….

I asked my father if I could begin taking guitar lessons.

He agreed and spent the money for a garage sale guitar. Our next concert together was Van Halen on the Van Halen II tour. I had liked some of the songs on it like “Dance the Night Away” and “Beautiful Girls.”

Early in 1979, they were on the road, so my Dad and I went. Honestly, these guys were not one of my dad’s favorite, but he found lead singer David Lee Roth “intriguing”. Tickets were like $10.

I wasn’t blown away by the show like some over the years, but Eddie Van Halen’s guitar work was just phenomenal. He did two guitar solos and had smiles and thanked the audience after both.

I really began wanting to be a rock star after all of this, throwing all of my free time into practicing. Dad said my playing sounded like skinning a wounded cat. Finally after about six

Finally after about six months, Dad took me aside and said it just wasn’t going to happen. He and Mom would back my drama career but my music career was officially over.

To be honest, I kind of knew that. Everyone I knew was trying to become the new Van Halen wunderkind, so I went and focused on my other career:

Concerts and how to get the best seats for them. Whenever someone awesome would come to town like Van Halen, Rush, the Cars, Boston etc. I’d try and get seats. Saw Van Halen another three times with DLR and twice with Sammy Hagar, which were all really good.

I bought the albums, including the live album from Tokyo a few years back. His guitar work had suffered a little but nothing to note of. I saw them in Dallas and they were great on the reunion tour.

When I heard Eddie had died early last week, it took a little piece of my heart. A little piece of my childhood. I spent most of this past weekend listening too them and reminiscing.

That's about it for this week. As always, thanks for reading. We'll see ya down the road."