Happy Birthday Eddie....

I heard on the news that yesterday was Eddie Van Halen's birthday. He just turned 54. That's hard to believe. Yeah, I know he's a mess with a lot of addiction problems and all that mess, but I can remember the exact time and place where I heard Van Halen's first album for the first time.

I was involved in a musical ensemble in high school and one of the other keyboard players (Cary Gant for those of you that know him) took me out to his car to listen to something. He had a cassette of that album. I listened to Eddie's guitar solo 'Eruption' about a dozen times. It was one of those 'Jukebox Hero' moments where you hear something that changes your life forever.

I've listened to Van Halen ever since. To be honest, the latest album that I listened to was 5150 where Sammy Hagar joined them as lead singer. I still listen to some of their older stuff, there is a lot of suggestive lyrics and things, but they are still one of the groups that I listen to when I just want to turn my brain off and jam.

Eddie and I had a little bit of a falling out when he married my childhood sweetheart Valerie Bertinelli. I can remember going to see them in concert here in Nashville long ago. The Municipal Auditorium was packed, the pre-concert noise was pretty loud. All of a sudden, the noise died down and you could see that the focus of the crowd was following someone walking through one of the aisles. After a few moments, the point of focus walked up on the stand in the back of the auditorium where the sound board was located. It was Valerie Bertinelli taking her place to watch the show. It was a memorable moment for a teenager like me.

Their music doesn't quite have the same effect on me now that it did then, but I remember the line from Bad Company's "Shooting Star"

Johnny was a schoolboy when he heard his first Beatles song
'Love Me Do' I think it was and from there it didn't take him long

Music didn't turn out to be my life's calling, but I know exactly what that moment feels like...