Eddie Van Halen is one of the LAST great important & influential rock guitarist of all time with few equals joining other legendary rock guitarists before him like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page because what came after the VH explosion back in 78 hasn't made much of an impact even though Steve Vai & Joe Satriani are great rock guitarists in their own right. Listening to Eddie's signature song on Van Halen's debut album Eruption is like an atomic bomb which shook the rock world to its knees at the time with so much force that other rock guitarists tried to immitate but never succeded because they were more posers than real musicians for the MTV audience like C. C. Deville of Poison as an example so rock & roll had its last hurrah in the 70's & early 80's during VH's reign.