Eddie Van Halen's death Was A Huge Blow To Slash

Keavin Wiggins | 12-26-2020

The death of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen came a huge blow to Slash, the Guns N' Roses lead guitarist shared in a recent interview with Cleveland.com.

Slash spoke with the publication about the new brand new 'Not In This Lifetime' pinball game and during the interview he was asked about his reaction to Van Halen's death.

He responded, "That was a huge...blow. I actually met Eddie back in 1988; He came up to me at a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert and gave me a compliment on one of my guitar solos, which always sticks with me as one of the nicest, most selfless things any fellow guitar player ever did. We've were sort of friends ever since then.

"On top of the fact he's a monster musician, he was just a really good guy, a really sweet guy. Towards the end I'd been in touch with him. I knew he was in the hospital, but I didn't know to what extent. I had a vague feeling what was going on and was just sort of keeping in touch with him, but then around June or something I stopped hearing from him.

"I was in Chicago doing the pinball machine and got a text (about his death) and I was just completely shocked. It was just really sad and tragic and indelible news."