The Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready was a huge Van Halen fan since he was a little kid and he was lucky enough to have seen the band performing live four times with David Lee Roth on vocals. He finally had the chance to meet his hero, Eddie Van Halen, in 2013 when Pearl Jam was recording their tenth studio album “Lightning Bolt”.
As the guitar player recalled in an interview with Howard Stern (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), after declaring his love for the groundbreaking self-titled Van Halen debut album released in 1978, Eddie told him that he really never liked the sound of that album.
Eddie never really liked the sound of the Van Halen debut according to Mike McCready
“(Van Halen’s music) is music from another planet to me. I started playing guitar at (the age of) 12, right when this record came out (‘Van Halen’ 1978). It didn’t really made any sense to me (Since still wasn’t a real guitarist). But I thought it was the greatest sounding thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I luckily got to see them four times with David Lee Roth. Stone (Grossard) and I will talk about Van Halen all the time. (It was) just incredible the energy to them, when they would come to town in Seattle, it was like (if) the summer was here. Summer’s coming, Van Halen’s coming, you know, it was just very exciting.”
“When we were doing our ‘Lightning Bolt’ (2013) record in Los Angeles, California, he happened to be in the hall one day. I just happened to be listening to the first record on the way to the studio. So I was like ‘Eddie Van Halen!’ I’m like… you know, just giving my resumé. Because I’m (excited to see him).”
“I said, ‘Man, I was just listening to the first record. It’s so incredible!’ And he’s like ‘Ah, I never really like the sound of that record’. I’m just thinking ‘That record is incredible! You’re just the greatest…’. Anyway, I took a picture with him and that was the only time I ever met him. I was 12 or 13 when that album came out,” Mike McCready said.
Van Halen’s debut album had famous tracks like “Runnin’ With The Devil”, “Eruption”, “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”, “Jamie’s Cryin” and the cover of “You Really Got Me”. The album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 charts and sold an estimated amount of more than 10 million copies only in the United States.