Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith Remembers Eddie Van Halen

Keavin Wiggins | 11-10-2020

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith offered his thoughts about music legend Eddie Van Halen, who lost his long battle with cancer back on October 6th at the age of 65.

Eddie Van Halen came up while Adrian was speaking to The Metal Voice about his new book "Monsters of River & Rock". Smith was asked if Eddie was an influence to him as a guitarist.

He responded, "Probably him and Jimi Hendrix, certainly in my lifetime, had the biggest effect on the electric guitar. I loved his playing, although when he came out, I had already been playing five or six years. If I had been starting out when I heard him, I would have just copied him, you know, like 99 percent of the other guitarists did.

"But, yeah, he was fantastic. I'd love to have met him. I came close a couple of times, but I never met him. And I love his guitar sound. If I've got a guitar and an amp and I'm just trying to get a sound, I'd probably use him as a reference point." Watch the interview below: