Classic Rock
Michael Anthony talks about Jimmy Page’s influence on Eddie VH
The classic Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony is currently on the road with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani and Jason Bonham promoting the tour “The Best of All Worlds”, which is mainly focused on the material Van Halen released during the years with Sammy on vocals. In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, Anthony talked about the late legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen and how the Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page influenced him.
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He recalled that Eddie’s famous tapping technique was created after he had the chance to watch Page performing with Zeppelin.
Michael Anthony talks about Jimmy Page’s influence on Eddie VH
“He was a great guitar player. There are a couple interviews I’ve seen that he’s done, where people ask him the same question, how does he feel being called that or whatever. He he just says, ‘Hey, I’m just a punk kid who plays guitar.’ The genius part I guess came with the tapping, because it was very innovative, what he did.”
“And the way he even explains it, where he was a big fan of seeing Jimmy Page live. And he just took like, what Page was doing those, those pull-offs with one hand, and Eddie just started, ‘What if I took the same thing and moved it like, with this finger, like I was moving the nut of the guitar up?'”
“So, I guess you could call a lot of that innovative. Genius? Yeah, I think so. Because he was probably the first one who really brought that out into the mainstream and he did it very well, obviously,” Michael Anthony said.
Before having their own songs, Van Halen used to play a lot of covers on the bar circuit and there were many Led Zeppelin tracks on the setlist. Some of them are “Hots On For Nowhere”, “The Rover” and “Trampled Underfoot”. Also after the mid-80s when Sammy Hagar became the band’s vocalist, they included many times the songs “Whole Lotta Love” and “Rock and Roll” during their concerts.
