Tell Uncle Don stories in the living room. I know she’ll appreciate it when we can finally get together as a family again. Though we all miss you, at least she’s not worrying about you anymore. Speaking of worry, she used to worry about you so much. I’ll give her a big one soon, don’t worry. It’s been a weird year, man! Grandma really wants a hug. I kept putting it off, and putting it off, because we can’t socialize. I wanted to buy a turntable for the lake, and play some of your old records in the back yard like you used to. Maybe we can do it this summer, or next summer. If it wasn’t for this damned virus, we had an idea for a tribute last summer. It’s not as manly as it was in your day, but everything is still there. I hope you would like what Kathryn has done with it.
One summer you were there for about three weeks straight. We spent last summer quarantined between here and the cottage. It wouldn’t be the topic of my choosing, but I could do it. I could converse with you about hockey now. Even being married to Jen and watching all this hockey, baseball and football, I still don’t like sports. You thought it was cool when I started picking up these old bands you had in your school days. That was another band you liked long before I discovered them. We also did an entire episode on Led Zeppelin. You were a part of my history with that band. So far I’ve talked to two former members of Helix - a band we used to discuss in the old days. I chat with friends about music and I interview rock stars. Since you’ve been gone, I followed my dreams and started a YouTube show. Why Jane’s Addiction? Why the second Garbage album, and not the first? Somebody here went to painstaking care to make you a mix CD, but why did she include “Who Let the Dogs Out”? I’d really like to know your thoughts on that one! Looking at your discs here, I have so many questions. I was surprised to find it in your collection. I can picture you guys sitting there quietly talking, and maybe even laughing a little. She says she used to like having her morning coffee when only the two of you were awake. Aunt says that it will be weird coming home to Waterloo without you around. My next thought was for Grandma, and Mom, and Aunt. My first thought was “at least he is not in pain anymore.” I didn’t like that you had to suffer so much. What song or album will you play for Eddie tonight?Ī year ago today we got the message that you were gone.
Tonight, I’m going to go with “Dirty Movies” from Fair Warning to spotlight the greatest gee-tar picker of all time. Let’s all take a moment to reflect, and play some Van Halen tonight. You can watch the deep cuts below, starting again at 20 minutes. You can watch that tribute below, starting at the 20 minute mark.Īs if that wasn’t enough, we followed that with another Van Halen show: VH deep cuts! One thing for sure, Eddie certainly inspired a lot of conversation on the LeBrain Train over the past year. The week Eddie passed, we did a tribute to him on the LeBrain Train.
You can read my full memorial here: Rest in Peace to the greatest guitar player of all time.
And he sheepishly grinned through the whole thing as if to say, “Who, me? I did that?”Ī year later, it’s only more certain that there will never been another Eddie. He was the most important of all the guitar innovators. From modifying his own guitars and amps to achieve the perfect “brown sound”, to brutalizing the strings with a drill, he was an innovator. No player before or since will have the ingenuity and influence he did. ‘Twas only a year ago I wrote these words: