Originally Posted by
Terry
It might come across as lame to say this or whatever, but Van Halen were the shit for me back in the day. Hearing Van Halen wasn't the sole reason I took up the guitar, but for the first few years of playing Eddie was a primary influence. This is back in 1981 or so. I was 11 or 12 years old, thereabouts. And, yeah, part of me had a snarky attitude toward Eddie after the 1996 fling with Dave didn't culminate in anything beyond the two BOV1 tracks. Mostly because it seemed like Ed was frittering away his talent. Van Halen were such a positive experience to listen to back in the day. Back when I was young and impressionable and still idolized rock stars. So, a lot of the snark I had toward what Ed had had devolved to in the post-Cherone/pre-2007 Roth reunion period was masking a disappointment on my part.
I didn't want Ed to basically give up, hide his talent away and retreat into seclusion. None of that represented the best of what Eddie was to me back in the day. I didn't want Eddie to embark on a half-hearted reunion tour with Sammy Hagar and hear clips of him fumble fingering his way through Van Hagar tunes. I didn't want to see Ed wanking on his Trans-Trem Sustainer for a porn movie. I didn't want to see Eddie walking around looking like an extra in a zombie movie. I didn't want to see him befuddled at a NAMM show, unable to play licks he had been able to execute with ease less than a decade earlier. Fuck, whatever I felt about the Cherone years, at least Eddie was still able to PLAY, you know? It seemed like Eddie was in free fall. Even when that publicity photo of Ed, Al, Dave and Wolfie was released online in late 2006/early 2007, Eddie still looked a bit fucked up in that photo. As much as I in 2007 was still tantalized by the prospect of Dave rejoining the group as I had been in 1996, I didn't want THAT to happen if Eddie was still in free fall.
It certainly appeared that those last three Roth tours at the very least gave Eddie a reason to get himself straight, dust off the cobwebs and give us all a glimmer of what made his playing so memorable in the first place. It'd be logical to assume that Jani and Wolfgang were positive relationships. Ed liked playing with his kid. If that's what it took to get Ed out of his tailspin, then that's what it took. Considering where Ed was in the first half of the 2000's, he did manage to sort himself out and end his professional career on a positive note and not go out, as you say, a broken-down wreck.