How guitarist Gary Moore reacted when he first saw Eddie Van Halen play

Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham recalled in an excerpt of the book “Eruption: The Eddie Van Halen Story”, published by Classic Rock magazine how guitarist Gary Moore (Ex-Thin Lizzy, who had a successful solo career) reacted when he first saw Eddie Van Halen play.

Scott Gorham recalls how Gary Moore reacted when he first saw Eddie Van Halen play:

“We were on the same label in America, Warners, and whenever we hooked up with anyone from the label, you always heard, ‘Wow, man, I was just out with Van Halen – what a fucking band! It got to the point where Phil would tell them, ‘Look, if you get into this fucking car, you’re not going to talk about Van Halen, all right?'”

“So we were interested in this band we’d heard so much about. And these boys came on and just shredded everybody a brand-new asshole. They were amazing. When Eddie started doing his tapping thing, I turned around to Gary and said, ‘What the fuck is that? What is he doing there?’ Gary was just staring at him, and he said, ‘I don’t know.'”

“Ten minutes later, I went to ask Gary another question, and he was gone. The next day, I was standing in his hotel room, and he said, ‘Hey, check this out…’ and he started tapping away. He’d gone back to the hotel the night before to teach himself how to do it.”

However, in an interview with Guitar World back in 1987, Moore said that he wasn’t a big fan of Hard Rock music:

What music do you listen to in private?

“Everything possible, only no hard rock. Mostly I like listening to singers: Chaka Khan, Steve Winwood. I really like Billy Idol’s newest album. Jeff Beck and Allan Holdsworth are among my favorite guitarists. And now and then I like to listen to Debussy.”

Why do you keep saying that hard rock doesn’t appeal to you?

“Because there’s hardly any difference between most hard rock groups. You often can’t tell where they’re coming from. Okay, the Scorpions with their classical guitar style sound different than the British metal groups and their blues infusion. But in the end it’s all restricted to loud guitar noise, and there’s only so many notes you can get out of a guitar.”

But bands like Europe can be quite energetic.

“Spare me from Europe. They have no style of their own. They are completely unoriginal. I have absolutely no respect for them. Their guitars sound like mine, and the singer sounds like a cross between Deep Purple and the Scorpions. I find Bon Jovi better; at least they have their own style.”

Gary Moore’s death

Irish guitarist Gary Moore died on February 6, 2011 and the news was confirmed by Adam Parsons, manager of the group Thin Lizzy, in which Moore played. At the time the Irish Times newspaper revealed that the musician was found dead in a hotel in the city of Estepona, Spain.

He was on vacation, according to the publication. The cause of death was revealed only one year later and according to The Telegraph, Gary had 380 milligrams of alcohol per deciliter of blood.