The legendary rocker Ted Nugent recently spoke about Eddie Van Halen during the May 3 edition of “The Nightly Nuge“, a news-style clip in which he offers his take on the news of our world every night. Nugent revealed he jammed with Eddie Van Halen.
Ted Nugent sheds praise on Eddie Van Halen
On the 100th episode, he was asked to name the best guitar player he has ever seen. He immediately named Eddie Van Halen because of his diverse approach and organic sense of rhythm.
Here is what he said: “There’s so many. I’m gonna go ahead and give it to Eddie Van Halen because he was so diverse in not only his histrionics but his groove. He had an unbelievable organic sense of rhythm in his delivery of not just exciting lead guitar parts but his grind of a grooving rhythm as a white kid.”
Nugent added: “He really defied the history of who can groove like that. ‘Cause I come from the world of The Funk Brothers of Motown, so I know what the gods of groove look and sound like. And Eddie Van Halen, the times I jammed with him, and just listening to the records, you can tell he had an unbelievable, uncanny Superman sense of rhythm beyond just his outrageous athleticism on the guitar neck.”
Eddie was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 2000 and had tongue surgery. He later battled lung cancer and had been receiving radiation treatment in Germany. The situation worsened in early 2019 when Eddie got in a motorcycle accident. He was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and received gamma knife radiosurgery to treat the illness. Eddie passed away in October 2020 at the age of 65 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California.
Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli recently discussed her new book, “Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today”. Bertinelli reflected on the special relationship she shared with her late ex-husband. It was previously noted that Eddie Van Halen ‘wanted to fight’ before his death. Bertinelli previously talked about Eddie’s alcohol addiction and she recently revealed that Eddie had drank as recently as 2014 in her new book.
