It was 1984. I was a young kid at my friends house. His brother was always saying, “hey, you two, come here, I am going to blow your minds!” He was a long hair and wore the denim jacket with all the Iron Maiden buttons. He was about 14 or 15, and my buddy and I were about 9. My parents were pretty strict when I was young, but later relaxed the rules a lot. Anyhow, his brother would be smoking cigarettes and I thought he was crazy! I could not believe he openly smoked in front of his parents! He always had hot girls over and I thought this dude was a stage 10 master. So, he calls us into his room, and puts on eruption and I was shocked!! Even at 9, with no musical knowledge or know how, I was stunned. I made him play it a few times before he eventually told me to get lost. I begged him to let me borrow it, but he refused. So, the next day I went downtown to my local music store to buy it. It was out! I was devastated! The guy at the store said, “we do have 1984.” He held up a record and there was a baby smoking a cigarette, and I was mesmerized. I bought it, my first record ever, and went home to listen to it. I liked it even more when I got home before I even listened to it. My mom didn’t like the album cover. I felt super cool and thought I was a rebel. I listened to that record so many times. Of course I desperately wanted a guitar! I didn’t end up getting one for a few years. I took it to my friends house and showed it to his brother. He said, “nice, 1984, I don’t have that yet, let’s take a listen.” He puffed some weed, I was shocked, I literally could not believe someone was doing drugs in front of me, and his parents were home! He had his guitar plugged in and was working on the finger tapping part of eruption and I was speechless. He became a mighty god before my very eyes, how is this titan of guitar even acknowledging my existence I wondered? As 1984 played on, I was so stoked! Not long after his girlfriend came in and I was tongue tied and bumbling. He told me to, “get lost,” and I left the room. I was so fired up!! Van Halen was the coolest band of all times in my mind! EVH held a god like status in my mind. When I watched him on MTV he always seemed so relaxed and always had that half smile on his face. All the other guitarists had those looks like they were suffering and in pain when playing leads. He made it look so easy and cool. Those were some good times, and Van Halen was the soundtrack to my early life. To this day, 1984 is still my favorite VH album. Girl Gone Bad, that guitar, the intro, the riff, so bad ass!!’ Every song on that album was just epic, although the same could be said about any VH album, oh, I mean VH with Roth. I wasn’t into Hagar at all. But VH with Roth, my god, watch out, it is like an invincible rock and roll machine! So bad ass!! So tough!! So macho!! Man, what legends, especially EVH!! That guy has known the greatest heights of glory!! To me, VH with Roth is up there with LED Zep and the Beatles.
