Episode 32
Which EVH Solos Deserve (Even) More Love? | 100 Guitarists Podcast
Naturally, every recording Eddie Van Halen ever played on has been pored over by legions of guitar players of all styles. It might seem funny, then, to consider EVH solos that might require more attention. But your 100 Guitarists hosts have their picks of solos that they feel merit a little discussion. Some of these are deep cuts—get ready for some instrumental bonus tracks and Van Halen III mentions—and some are among the biggest radio hits of their time. Just because their hits, though, doesn’t mean we don’t have more to add to the conversation.
We can’t cover everything EVH—Jason has already tried while producing the Runnin’ With the Dweezil podcuast. But we cover as much as we can in our longest episode yet. And in the second installment of our current listening segment, we’re talking about new-ish music from Oz Noy and Bill Orcutt.
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Transcript
Hey, this is Nick Milavoy.
Jason Shadrick:And this is Jason Shadrick.
Nick Milavoy:And this is the 100 Guitarist podcast.
Nick Milavoy:For each week, we're talking about one of the 100 guitar players we think you should know today.
Nick Milavoy:We're talking about somebody you absolutely do know.
Nick Milavoy:If you've ever thought about the guitar before, you definitely know who Eddie Van Halen is, but we're talking about him regardless.
Jason Shadrick:That's right.
Nick Milavoy:You still should know about him.
Jason Shadrick:You should.
Jason Shadrick:Yes, but at some point, Nick, we didn't know about Eddie Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:I suppose.
Nick Milavoy:Kinda.
Jason Shadrick:I barely remember not knowing about Eddie Van Halen because I was a MTV kid.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Nick Milavoy:I feel like he was in my consciousness before I really was conscious.
Jason Shadrick:Yes, I.
Jason Shadrick:I probably feel the same way, but it seems like every couple years I go a little deeper down the Van Halen rabbit hole.
Jason Shadrick:And I think, especially as we'll talk about in, say, the last four to five years, I've gone the deepest, some might say most people could go down the Van Halen rabbit hole.
Jason Shadrick:Oh, talk about that.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, I guess you have.
Jason Shadrick:Okay.
Jason Shadrick:I have spent more time listening to people talk about Van Halen than ever in my life.
Nick Milavoy:Ever in my life than.
Nick Milavoy:Than most humans have.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, no, I would think so.
Jason Shadrick:I would think so.
Jason Shadrick:But we're gonna get to that in a little bit.
Jason Shadrick:But first, you can get at us at 100guiterists@premiere guitar.com and you can call or text.
Jason Shadrick:Leave a voicemail 24.
Jason Shadrick:7.
Jason Shadrick:The hotlines are open 365 days a year.
Jason Shadrick: -: Jason Shadrick:And whatever you're listening to or watching us on, make sure to rate and drop us a review.
Jason Shadrick:Maybe send this to your friend who is still stuck listening to Van Halen 3 and can't break out of it.
Jason Shadrick:You don't know what to do.
Jason Shadrick:Send them this episode.
Jason Shadrick:That'll help them widen their scope of what.
Jason Shadrick:Of what Eddie's all about.
Nick Milavoy:And we love when you get at us with all sorts of things.
Nick Milavoy:You can tell us who you want to see on this podcast.
Nick Milavoy:You can tell us about your current favorite guitar player who maybe, maybe isn't going to be on this list.
Nick Milavoy:But for our current listening segment, hip us to some things that's already worked out.
Nick Milavoy:Some folks have pointed us in some good directions.
Nick Milavoy:Or tell us something about an episode we recorded.
Nick Milavoy:We just got a nice message about Carlos Santana's Echoplex.
Nick Milavoy:His EP3 Echoplex.
Nick Milavoy:It is for sale right now on the Reverb Gear Exchange.
Nick Milavoy:No, it's on Sweetwater on the Sweetwater Gear exchange, as you were saying.
Jason Shadrick:Yes.
Nick Milavoy:And not Santana price, not celebrity pricing.
Nick Milavoy:I actually like a pretty reasonable price for an EP3.
Jason Shadrick:It's been up there for five months.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, Chaz Luger heard our Santana episode, dropped us a line, sent us a link to it.
Nick Milavoy:He's got a good origin story he used to work at Sir.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Good story.
Nick Milavoy:Wow.
Nick Milavoy:Wouldn't.
Nick Milavoy:I mean, I guess the tape that's in there, I wonder if it's the original tape that Carlos know recorded his guitar on.
Jason Shadrick:You thinking there's like an outtake of ova sitting just waiting?
Nick Milavoy:Could be.
Nick Milavoy:You ever mess with an Echoplex?
Nick Milavoy:I.
Nick Milavoy:I've always wanted to own one, but was never brave enough.
Jason Shadrick:No, I.
Jason Shadrick:No, I have it.
Jason Shadrick:Just not like a real or anything.
Jason Shadrick:But when you mention that there's still something stored on there that remind me.
Jason Shadrick:One time Mark Leteri came into the office here at Premier Guitar and did a little like, live session and he had his board with him.
Jason Shadrick:He's like, oh, hey, do you have a looper?
Jason Shadrick:I was like, sure.
Jason Shadrick:And I had a TC Electronic Ditto X2.
Jason Shadrick:And so in the thing, he recorded this loop that he played over in the little live Q and A thing we did.
Jason Shadrick:And I remember, like six months later, I plugged in that thing in a lesson and I hit it and all of a sudden that loop was still in there.
Nick Milavoy:What is this?
Jason Shadrick:I'm gonna.
Jason Shadrick:I text him.
Jason Shadrick:I was like, can I sell this?
Jason Shadrick:Can I put this on ebay?
Jason Shadrick:Get some jazz money?
Nick Milavoy:Can you write.
Nick Milavoy:You could write a song around his loop.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, but then there's publishing and all that.
Nick Milavoy:All right, well, before we get to Eddie Van Halen, we gotta thank Tonespeak for sponsoring today's episode.
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Jason Shadrick:The bass guitar speakers incorporate neodymium magnets and lightweight stamped steel frames.
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Jason Shadrick:You can find Tonespeak products at Guitar Center, Musician's Friend, Parts Express, and other authorized dealers.
Jason Shadrick:So head on over to tonespeak.com for more information.
Jason Shadrick:And I would say, Nick, I think changing the speaker in your amp might be the easiest and most effective way to change your tone.
Nick Milavoy:I think so.
Nick Milavoy:You know, I think you're right.
Jason Shadrick:If you're like me, I don't want to get my hands deep into tube swapping, stuff like that, but swapping a speaker, I think.
Jason Shadrick:I think I learned more from swapping speakers in my amp than I do tubes.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, I've had some pretty dramatic results.
Jason Shadrick:The tonal differences are more pronounced, let's say.
Jason Shadrick:Cool.
Jason Shadrick:Well, thanks to Tonespeak for hopping on the 100 guitarist bandwagon and sponsoring this episode.
Jason Shadrick:All right, Eddie Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:Wow.
Nick Milavoy:We got so much about.
Jason Shadrick:It's.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, kind of like with.
Jason Shadrick:With Luke.
Jason Shadrick:They're a vast catalog that we're not going to be able to go through part by part.
Nick Milavoy:No, but.
Nick Milavoy:No, we're going to.
Nick Milavoy:Let's talk about a couple of highlights.
Jason Shadrick:But I'm going to let the people in on something else.
Jason Shadrick:If they want to go song by song, album by album, if that's the kind of vibe they want, then I need to point them to a podcast that I worked on with one Dweezel Zappa called Running with the Dweezil.
Jason Shadrick:You can head over to his website.
Jason Shadrick:It's the most in depth Van Halen podcast of all time.
Jason Shadrick:29, 30 episodes.
Jason Shadrick:Just to give you an idea, Nick, we spent six hours on Fair Warning.
Nick Milavoy:Did you really?
Jason Shadrick:Yes.
Jason Shadrick:We spent three hours with Nuno Bettencourt talking song by song.
Jason Shadrick:Flip side of that coin, we spent three hours talking with Billy Corgan about Fair Warning, which Fair Warning is my favorite Van Halen record.
Nick Milavoy:Is it really?
Jason Shadrick:It is.
Jason Shadrick:It's my favorite Van Halen record.
Jason Shadrick:I think the true heads, the true guitar nerds, they noticed Eddie got a little weird on that record, and we like it.
Nick Milavoy:So how long is the actual episode?
Nick Milavoy:I don't remember.
Nick Milavoy:I do remember listening to it.
Jason Shadrick:Each one is three hours.
Jason Shadrick:The Nuno episode is three hours.
Jason Shadrick:The Billy episode's three hours.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, my God.
Nick Milavoy:But I thought that it was.
Nick Milavoy:There was one episode on Fair Warning.
Jason Shadrick:No, two episodes on Fair Warning.
Jason Shadrick:And let me.
Jason Shadrick:I should have pulled up before.
Jason Shadrick:I'm pulling it up right now.
Jason Shadrick:I'm going to give you an idea about how deep this goes right now.
Jason Shadrick:So we talk about.
Jason Shadrick:We do two episodes with Steve Vai on the first record.
Jason Shadrick:So that's.
Jason Shadrick:We did about three hours in total with Steve I on Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:One, incredible.
Jason Shadrick:We did an episode with Paul Gilbert on Van Halen 2 and Paul knows every.
Nick Milavoy:I remember that one.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:David Lee Roth vocal ad lib.
Jason Shadrick:There is.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, we did a couple episodes.
Jason Shadrick:Blue Saraceno, like I mentioned.
Jason Shadrick:We have, you know, Ben.
Nick Milavoy:And there is a guy you don't hear about a lot, but who was all over guitar magazines in the 90s.
Jason Shadrick:Has a great story of one time Eddie.
Jason Shadrick:He was playing blues.
Jason Shadrick:Was.
Jason Shadrick:Him and Dweezil were like, jamming at his house.
Jason Shadrick:Dweezil gets a call.
Jason Shadrick:This is before cell phones.
Jason Shadrick:Eddie.
Jason Shadrick:Ring, ring.
Jason Shadrick:It's Eddie Van Halen on the line.
Jason Shadrick:He wants to know if he can come over and play their new album for Blues and Dweezil.
Nick Milavoy:What record was it?
Jason Shadrick:Eddie drives over.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, don't read ahead.
Jason Shadrick:So Eddie drives over, right, and has the cd, but he wants to listen to it in the car.
Jason Shadrick:So they all pile into Eddie's car in Dweezil's driveway.
Jason Shadrick:And Blues is like.
Jason Shadrick:It might be the most physically painfully loud sound experience I've ever had.
Jason Shadrick:It was Balance, was the record.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, wow.
Jason Shadrick:Balance.
Jason Shadrick:Great story.
Jason Shadrick:Mark Tremani's on it.
Jason Shadrick:Jennifer Batten, Greg Howe, Satchel.
Jason Shadrick:Mark Letteri, James Valentine Satriani.
Jason Shadrick:We did for Unlawful Carnal Knowledge with Satriani.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, nice.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:Andy Wood.
Jason Shadrick:Blue Saracino comes back with James Santiago.
Jason Shadrick:They do van Halen 3, Phil X, Bonamasa, John Shanks.
Jason Shadrick:John Shanks.
Jason Shadrick:A Different Kind of Truth.
Jason Shadrick:He's the guy who produced it, brought him in.
Jason Shadrick:Pete Thorne has a couple of them.
Jason Shadrick:Greg Kirsten.
Jason Shadrick:You familiar with Greg Kirsten?
Jason Shadrick:I'm Not Famous.
Jason Shadrick:Produces the Foo Fighters and Adele.
Jason Shadrick:And massive producer.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:He was the keyboard player in Dweezil's middle school band when Eddie produced their first single.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:He's in the mix.
Jason Shadrick:We got Jacob Derop's Young, Crazy Young.
Jason Shadrick:Great guitar.
Jason Shadrick:So if you really want to go song by song, I'm giving you the hard selling this.
Jason Shadrick:Really want to go song by song, album by album.
Jason Shadrick:Running with the Dweezil podcast.
Jason Shadrick:You can get that through Dweezil's website.
Jason Shadrick:Check that out.
Jason Shadrick:So as a producer on that, I listen to, I don't know, anywhere between 40 and 60 hours of people talking about Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:So I feel like I did this postgraduate degree.
Nick Milavoy:You really did.
Nick Milavoy:All right, so lead us here.
Nick Milavoy:Your.
Nick Milavoy:Your choices here are just going to be.
Nick Milavoy:There's.
Nick Milavoy:They're backed up by so much information.
Jason Shadrick:One of them.
Jason Shadrick:So what we're going to do, Nick, you and I, we're each going to pick our five.
Jason Shadrick:You could say favorite.
Jason Shadrick:I'm not going to say best, but you could say favorite.
Jason Shadrick:Van Halen solos that I'm.
Jason Shadrick:I'm just pointing to five little nuggets in his catalog that most people might skip over.
Jason Shadrick:It's.
Jason Shadrick:It's not.
Jason Shadrick:There's really only one on here that could even be remotely classified as a.
Nick Milavoy:Hit from my list anyways, so mine is going to be a little bit different.
Nick Milavoy:I'm talking about not really my favorites.
Nick Milavoy:They're like my favorites today.
Nick Milavoy:My favorites right now, they change.
Nick Milavoy:My list would be different tomorrow, but my list is more.
Nick Milavoy:We said we're going to pick five.
Nick Milavoy:My list is more than five.
Nick Milavoy:So even.
Nick Milavoy:Even with this, I'm just going to be improvising.
Nick Milavoy:I'm.
Nick Milavoy:It's, you know, it's like jazz, man.
Nick Milavoy:Whatever I say, it's just like.
Nick Milavoy:It's.
Nick Milavoy:It's an improvisational thing.
Nick Milavoy:But, you know, there.
Nick Milavoy:There's solos that stick with me more than anything.
Nick Milavoy:I don't know that they're my favorite as much as the ones that when I like from my gut today, come out on that.
Nick Milavoy:Be that list.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:And also, I'm prefacing this with.
Jason Shadrick:I just recently finished listening to the Alex Van Halen book.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, nice.
Nick Milavoy:I did not do that.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Mixed review, mixed bag for me.
Jason Shadrick:But it was nice to hear Alex talk about Eddie.
Jason Shadrick:Highly recommended.
Jason Shadrick:Just.
Nick Milavoy:I got to do that.
Nick Milavoy:All right, so, Jason, I want you to start with this.
Nick Milavoy:You're.
Nick Milavoy:You're the Van Halen master here.
Nick Milavoy: You're the: Nick Milavoy:What's the best Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:No, sorry.
Nick Milavoy:What's your favorite?
Nick Milavoy:Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:Watch your mouth.
Jason Shadrick:And first of all, let's get this right off the top.
Jason Shadrick:Van Halen, not a jam band.
Jason Shadrick:I'm not a jam.
Nick Milavoy:Clarified that one.
Jason Shadrick:So let's just.
Jason Shadrick:Let's just get that out front.
Jason Shadrick:Okay.
Jason Shadrick:I said fair warnings.
Jason Shadrick:My favorite album.
Jason Shadrick:I stand by it.
Jason Shadrick:But there's one solo Dweezil point in Me too, as we were working on this that I played for you early earlier.
Jason Shadrick:Oh, yeah, that.
Jason Shadrick:It's Van Halen's only reggae song.
Nick Milavoy:Sure.
Jason Shadrick:I don't believe I haven't done a super deep dive on this, but I don't believe they've ever played it live.
Jason Shadrick:Called Push Comes to Shuff.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:Michael Anthony, MVP of that track, first of all.
Jason Shadrick:But specifically the opening lick of that solo.
Jason Shadrick:I know Dweezil talked about this with almost every guest at one point or Another.
Jason Shadrick:But people get the notes right, but nobody really knows how Eddie played that.
Jason Shadrick:I think it's one of the most befuddling licks in the entire Van Halen catalog.
Jason Shadrick:It's a weird song.
Jason Shadrick:It's a weirder solo, but.
Jason Shadrick:And I think it's, like, one.
Jason Shadrick:I think it's one take, I want to say.
Jason Shadrick:Because Dweezil's heard the master tapes.
Jason Shadrick:I want to say one or.
Jason Shadrick:And then there was, like, maybe one note that was punched in.
Jason Shadrick:Right?
Jason Shadrick:Something like that.
Jason Shadrick:But Push Comes to Shove from Fair Warning is my first pick for solos.
Jason Shadrick:You need to check out side honorable mention real quick.
Jason Shadrick:Honorable mention.
Jason Shadrick:The outro solo on.
Jason Shadrick:And this all for Fair Warning.
Jason Shadrick:The outro solo on Unchained under the chorus, ripping.
Jason Shadrick:And I'm counting the intro to Mean street as a solo.
Nick Milavoy:This is all one entry.
Jason Shadrick:Those are honorable mentions.
Jason Shadrick:Those are honorable mentions because we're talking about Fair Warning.
Jason Shadrick:But my first official entry is Push Comes to Shove.
Nick Milavoy:Okay.
Nick Milavoy:That lick that you're talking about is a real.
Nick Milavoy:That is a very slinky kind of riff.
Nick Milavoy:I really.
Nick Milavoy:Or the kind of lick.
Nick Milavoy:I really like it.
Jason Shadrick:I'm gonna need to sample that and put it on our soundboard here.
Nick Milavoy:I'll be honest.
Nick Milavoy:I don't think I ever thought too hard about that lick.
Nick Milavoy:And then you brought it up to me, and it.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, I.
Jason Shadrick:I have seen people at least three different ways play that lick.
Jason Shadrick:And the notes are right.
Jason Shadrick:It's just a matter of where you're tapping and where you're bending kind of thing.
Jason Shadrick:And to get it with that feel is, let's say, damn near impossible.
Jason Shadrick:All right, Nick.
Nick Milavoy:Big obvious choice I'm making.
Nick Milavoy:Really big.
Jason Shadrick:Hold on.
Jason Shadrick:Timeout.
Jason Shadrick:This list does not include eruption.
Nick Milavoy:No, no, no.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, go on.
Nick Milavoy:That's like, a given part of.
Jason Shadrick:Yes.
Nick Milavoy:That's like something else.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, Right.
Nick Milavoy:Hot For Teacher, like.
Nick Milavoy:And I'm not talking about the intro.
Nick Milavoy:And the intro is amazing, but I don't think that's a different thing.
Nick Milavoy:I'm talking about, like, the actual solo on Hot for Teacher is so awesome, but it's also so simple.
Nick Milavoy:That's not, like, a really complex Eddie solo.
Nick Milavoy:It's pretty.
Nick Milavoy:It's a pretty straightforward, like, rock and roll solo.
Nick Milavoy:There's stuff about it that he plays that's like.
Nick Milavoy:You know, it doesn't sound like Jimmy Page, but it's kind of like Jimmy Page.
Nick Milavoy:It's like Eddie channeling Jimmy Page, and it just sort of like, puts.
Nick Milavoy:Puts like a spotlight on his phrasing, because, you know, I've learned those licks.
Nick Milavoy:I performed that at my wedding.
Jason Shadrick:Hot for Teacher.
Nick Milavoy:I performed Hot for Teacher.
Nick Milavoy:My wife is a teacher.
Nick Milavoy:And I've performed it other places as well.
Nick Milavoy:And it's like, when you play it, you realize how much room there is.
Nick Milavoy:You get a lot of latitude with where to put those notes.
Nick Milavoy:And it puts a spotlight on how Eddie phrases things and how unique his.
Nick Milavoy:His phrasing is, because it's like, you know, he goes up off the top of my head.
Nick Milavoy:I think it's an F sharp, like, F sharp blues thing.
Nick Milavoy:He's up up above the 12th fret there, and, you know, it's just.
Nick Milavoy:He's doing bending, you know, bending on the third string there and just like, doing that kind of rock and roll lick.
Nick Milavoy:And it's so Eddie Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:But when you actually learn it, it could be any.
Nick Milavoy:Any rock guitar player if you just took the lick from itself and took the, you know, the phrasing, the style, the vibrato, like, out of the way.
Nick Milavoy:So I just.
Nick Milavoy:I love that about that solo.
Jason Shadrick:The.
Jason Shadrick:My favorite part about that solo is the break, because it's so easy to rush.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nick Milavoy:And to be where he comes in.
Jason Shadrick:Is like, play that in the pocket is so difficult.
Jason Shadrick:So difficult.
Jason Shadrick:Well, that's a good one.
Jason Shadrick:Mainstream, but that's all right.
Nick Milavoy:Really obvious choice.
Nick Milavoy:Like I said, I'm.
Nick Milavoy:I'm.
Nick Milavoy:I'm trying to bring up some obvious ones now.
Jason Shadrick:I'm presenting these in no particular order, my friend.
Jason Shadrick:This one might rock the boat more than.
Jason Shadrick:Wait, no, I'm going to save that one.
Jason Shadrick:I'm going to go down my list here because I took notes for this.
Jason Shadrick:Now, how I came across this particular solo.
Jason Shadrick:This is from the Sammy Hagar era.
Jason Shadrick:How I came across this particular solo is, for some unknown reason, whenever I plug my phone into my car to listen to music, it automatically plays the first song alphabetically.
Jason Shadrick:That is in my itunes library.
Nick Milavoy:I was hoping that you were going to say it automatically plays a loop of Marc Lettieri.
Jason Shadrick:No, that would be fun.
Jason Shadrick:But for a long time.
Jason Shadrick:You'll get this.
Jason Shadrick:For a long time.
Jason Shadrick:That song would be an Abersol recording.
Jason Shadrick:One, two, one, Right?
Jason Shadrick:A Brassol, A, E, B.
Nick Milavoy:That sounds torturous, right?
Jason Shadrick:And for some reason, I was cleaning out.
Jason Shadrick:Maybe I got a new phone.
Jason Shadrick:It kind of wiped out my phone, itunes memory or whatever and reloaded it.
Jason Shadrick:And for about the last year and a half, this song, it's from the OU812 album, it's called AFU.
Jason Shadrick:All Fired up is the first thing that plays.
Jason Shadrick:So much so that when I do the Apple music year in, they're like.
Jason Shadrick: Your favorite track of: Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:And it's a pretty up tempo ripping song.
Jason Shadrick:And the solo is like classic rock and roll Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:There's some double stop struck.
Jason Shadrick:There's some nice little tapping stuff in there, but it's just like.
Jason Shadrick:It's super melodic.
Jason Shadrick:It's off a song that I don't think is on people's radar a lot.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Fire up ou812.
Jason Shadrick:Afu is the name of the song.
Jason Shadrick:Two thirds at this point.
Jason Shadrick:You could.
Jason Shadrick:You could.
Jason Shadrick:I could pull up a song in Van Halen's catalog and I could almost drop the needle on where the solo is going to be because it's basically in the same spot every time.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:For the last course or whatever after the bridge.
Jason Shadrick:So that is one for me.
Jason Shadrick:A Fu.
Nick Milavoy:Good choice.
Nick Milavoy:That's a good one.
Nick Milavoy:All right.
Nick Milavoy: I'm still on: Nick Milavoy:I guess that makes it my favorite Van Halen album in a way.
Nick Milavoy:It might be my favorite Van Halen album, man.
Nick Milavoy:The guitar solo on I'll Wait, Buddy.
Nick Milavoy:So melodic.
Nick Milavoy:And again, I'm gonna sound.
Nick Milavoy:This is.
Nick Milavoy:There's some repetition here, but it's a phrasing thing.
Nick Milavoy:The.
Nick Milavoy:The melodicness of that solo and the phrasing on it just gets me every time.
Nick Milavoy:It's like I never.
Nick Milavoy:I never put the notes in the places that Eddie does in my head.
Nick Milavoy:And I'm always amazed by the sound of that solo and the feel of that solo.
Nick Milavoy:Fun little fact.
Nick Milavoy:The heads know, but, you know, not everybody.
Nick Milavoy:Sometimes I like to pull this little factoid out and people go, no way.
Nick Milavoy:Really?
Nick Milavoy:Do you know who co wrote Iowa?
Nick Milavoy:Wait.
Jason Shadrick:Yacht rock icon.
Nick Milavoy:Of course you do.
Jason Shadrick:Michael McDonald.
Nick Milavoy:How awesome is that?
Jason Shadrick:That caused a big rift in the band.
Jason Shadrick:Did you know that?
Nick Milavoy:No, I didn't.
Jason Shadrick:Cause not within the.
Jason Shadrick:If you read Ted Templeman's book there, that caused.
Jason Shadrick:Well, it caused a lot of bad blood between Van halen and Michael McDonald because Michael McDonald was left off the right writing credits early on.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:But I think they straightened that out.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah, David.
Jason Shadrick:That's what it was.
Jason Shadrick:David Lee Roth and Ted didn't like the song, and Eddie liked the song.
Jason Shadrick:And that was the.
Jason Shadrick:That was the headbutting.
Jason Shadrick:And we all know who won that battle because we now all know that song.
Jason Shadrick:But.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah, it's in the key of D minor.
Jason Shadrick:Saddest of all.
Jason Shadrick:Keys.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Nick Milavoy:Well, it just.
Nick Milavoy:It's kind of a melancholy song.
Jason Shadrick:That's a good one.
Jason Shadrick:And I.
Jason Shadrick:I knew because of your recent yacht rock infatuation that you would.
Jason Shadrick:We work yacht rock into.
Jason Shadrick:I bet you.
Jason Shadrick:You know what?
Jason Shadrick:I bet you every guitar player on this list we could find like six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Jason Shadrick:Six degrees of yacht rock.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, definitely.
Jason Shadrick:Easy.
Nick Milavoy:Some of those guitar players might try and say they're not a part of the yacht rock tradition.
Jason Shadrick:Sorry, guys.
Jason Shadrick:They're in it.
Jason Shadrick:All right, all right.
Nick Milavoy:What do you got?
Nick Milavoy:Number three.
Jason Shadrick:I'm going Van Halen two.
Jason Shadrick:Somebody get me a doctor.
Jason Shadrick:One of the great.
Jason Shadrick:One of the great.
Jason Shadrick:The, the.
Jason Shadrick:Even the little riffs in that song.
Jason Shadrick:First of all with the volume swell.
Jason Shadrick:You know how he does that?
Jason Shadrick:I one time saw Sonny Landreth do that with a slide and not touching his volume knob.
Jason Shadrick:Not play that riff, but do those kind of volume swells with just his hands.
Jason Shadrick:Blew my mind.
Jason Shadrick:But.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Somebody get me a doctor.
Jason Shadrick:Those intro chords, you just.
Jason Shadrick:I feel like if ever I needed to really try out a high gain amp, those intro chords are the chords that I would try.
Jason Shadrick:You know, great solo.
Jason Shadrick:Really quirky chords that he's soloing over.
Jason Shadrick:Which is another thing that I think is Eddie's gift is that like he's able to melodically solo over non standard chord progressions.
Jason Shadrick:Like I think of this one and I think of right now.
Jason Shadrick:You know, that's a tough song to play over.
Nick Milavoy:And right now is.
Nick Milavoy:I would say.
Nick Milavoy:Sorry to take over your point for a second.
Nick Milavoy:Underrated song.
Nick Milavoy:It's such a big song that it's a piano song.
Nick Milavoy:I don't think I was.
Nick Milavoy:That was a possible inclusion on this list.
Nick Milavoy:I'm going to use this as an opportunity.
Nick Milavoy:That's your honorable agenda out there.
Nick Milavoy:Without using a slot.
Nick Milavoy:As my honorable mentioned that I think that people think of that as a piano song so much and that people our age.
Nick Milavoy:It's like that was a Pepsi commercial too.
Nick Milavoy:That it's easy and it was a Pepsi commercial and I believe an SNL that was a spoof on the Pepsi commercial.
Nick Milavoy:So it's like it was a little overwrought at the time.
Nick Milavoy:But to me that's a awesome guitar song and that solo is incredible and gets overlooked because it's such a piano jam.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, you were saying that.
Jason Shadrick:But Somebody get me a doctor ripping probably a top 20 Van Halen song.
Nick Milavoy:Sure.
Jason Shadrick:Overall.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah, I would.
Jason Shadrick:I would say that was.
Jason Shadrick:That's definitely one to study for sure.
Jason Shadrick:All right.
Nick Milavoy:All right, Number three for me.
Jason Shadrick:You say Running with the Devil.
Nick Milavoy:I'm not going to say Running with the Devil.
Nick Milavoy: So I picked two from: Nick Milavoy:I've given an honorable mention to a Sammy jam.
Nick Milavoy:I'm going to have to go with D.O.A.
Jason Shadrick:Oh, okay.
Nick Milavoy:It's not.
Nick Milavoy:Maybe it's not as epic of a solo as some of the other songs, but it's the.
Jason Shadrick:Such a good riff.
Nick Milavoy:It's such a good riff, and it's such a good melody.
Nick Milavoy:And he kind of comes, like, careening off the melody and it gets free.
Nick Milavoy:And he's doing a lot of, like, affected kind of tapping and bending kind of stuff that it's just like.
Nick Milavoy:It sounds so cool.
Nick Milavoy:And it's like.
Nick Milavoy:It's kind of like when you.
Nick Milavoy:When you think of the.
Nick Milavoy:The extreme of, like, what a Van Halen solo sounds like, it's kind of like that's the extreme of what Van Halen solo sounds like.
Nick Milavoy:It's just.
Nick Milavoy:It's just crazy sounding.
Nick Milavoy:Right?
Nick Milavoy:So.
Jason Shadrick:Great one.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, now we're getting into the spicy territory on the list.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, so I'm gonna save.
Jason Shadrick:I'm saving the real spicy one for last.
Jason Shadrick:So this one is a Sammy era tune.
Jason Shadrick:And they recently reissued Foreign Lawful.
Jason Shadrick:Carnal Knowledge came out with a reissue of it.
Jason Shadrick:Remixed, remastered, what have you.
Jason Shadrick:They also put out along with that, a live set from Dallas 92 91.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, and it's so good, right?
Jason Shadrick:Is really, really good.
Jason Shadrick:It had been on YouTube for a while, but they.
Jason Shadrick:They went and cleaned it up and they also put some video up there.
Nick Milavoy:I'm thinking about the right thing.
Nick Milavoy:Right.
Nick Milavoy:It's the video where they're outside.
Jason Shadrick:Yes.
Jason Shadrick:And there's just people everywhere.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, my God.
Jason Shadrick:And I gotta say, as we listen to before.
Jason Shadrick:What song did we listen to right before we came on?
Jason Shadrick:Sammy hit a rough.
Jason Shadrick:You could tell maybe it was a little early morning for those guys.
Jason Shadrick:For Sammy.
Jason Shadrick:Anyways.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, that from this recording.
Jason Shadrick:That what I played you was from the live recording.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:But they do.
Jason Shadrick:So they have.
Jason Shadrick:They remastered the whole album, but then they have.
Jason Shadrick:They have the live stuff that's all well and good, but then they put three or four.
Jason Shadrick:Three, Just little bonus tracks on there.
Jason Shadrick:And one of the things I've heard people always, always talk about is why didn't Eddie ever do a solo record?
Jason Shadrick:And the answer is simple.
Jason Shadrick:The answer is because his name is Van Halen and every Van Halen record basically wasn't.
Jason Shadrick:Eddie was what an Eddie solo record would sound like.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:And in one of the.
Jason Shadrick:I think it was with the Paul Gilbert episode of the Dweezil Pod, he talked about.
Jason Shadrick:He met.
Jason Shadrick:He met Eddie one time.
Jason Shadrick:And in this story, he's like.
Jason Shadrick: He invited me over to: Jason Shadrick:And he played him something, and he pulled up the faders, and it was this Van Halen song.
Jason Shadrick:Sammy was still in the band.
Jason Shadrick:This Van Halen song comes on Sammy's vocals, like, you know, And Paul couldn't remember what song it was, but he's like, oh, wow, that's cool.
Jason Shadrick:You know, that sounds really good.
Jason Shadrick:And then he pulls the F.
Jason Shadrick:He goes.
Jason Shadrick:And he's like, yeah, listen to this.
Jason Shadrick:And he pulls up the exact same song, but this time Eddie's playing the melody instrumental, but Eddie's playing the melody.
Jason Shadrick:And Paul was like that.
Jason Shadrick:I want more of that.
Jason Shadrick:Right?
Jason Shadrick:Who knows what song that was?
Jason Shadrick:Who knows that ever See the day.
Jason Shadrick:But long story short, this version of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, the expanded edition, has an instrumental version of a track called the Dream Is Over.
Jason Shadrick:And if you ever want to hear.
Jason Shadrick:And I'm.
Jason Shadrick:And I'm.
Jason Shadrick:And I'm picking this entire track instrumental version, right.
Jason Shadrick:There is a traditional guitar solo in there, really slippery tappy, Wild thing, which is great.
Jason Shadrick:But hearing how melodic Eddie's rhythm parts are on that song wasn't a hit.
Jason Shadrick:You know, it was just an album cut.
Jason Shadrick:But when you take out the vocals, and I imagine you could do this also, you know, you find all those isolated tracks on YouTube or whatever.
Jason Shadrick:But hearing, like, a produced version that has the vocals taking out of this Dream Is over track, I just.
Jason Shadrick:I sat there and started listening to it.
Jason Shadrick:And I know in the song, but I started listening to it.
Jason Shadrick:I sat listening to the whole thing this morning again, like, once I started, I was like, I can't.
Jason Shadrick:I had to listen to the whole thing.
Jason Shadrick:So again, I'm bending rules left and right here.
Jason Shadrick:The Dream is over.
Jason Shadrick:Instrumental trio, Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:Excellent.
Jason Shadrick:Can't.
Jason Shadrick:Can't miss that one.
Jason Shadrick:That's a great one.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, I think are so good, Nick.
Jason Shadrick:I'm surprised you're even still sticking around.
Nick Milavoy:You sent that over to me, and I hadn't really thought about that one.
Nick Milavoy:And I was.
Nick Milavoy:I.
Nick Milavoy:Right before we jumped on here, I listened to it very loud and was.
Jason Shadrick:Like, yeah, this is ripping, dude.
Jason Shadrick:This is one of Jason's rhythm parts on even a mediocre song were incredible.
Jason Shadrick:Incredible.
Nick Milavoy:All right, man.
Nick Milavoy:That.
Nick Milavoy:Looking at my list here, there's two places I could go, two places I could go with what you just said.
Nick Milavoy:All right, I'm gonna do it.
Nick Milavoy:Here we go.
Nick Milavoy:You said his parts uneven.
Nick Milavoy:A mediocre song.
Nick Milavoy:Are you ready?
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, and this is.
Nick Milavoy:I'm thinking about.
Nick Milavoy:I'm.
Nick Milavoy:I'm breaking the rules too.
Nick Milavoy:I'm not just thinking about the solo.
Nick Milavoy:The solo is amazing.
Nick Milavoy:But there's.
Nick Milavoy:It's everything he's doing throughout this track.
Nick Milavoy:But it's not just rhythm parts.
Nick Milavoy:He's doing lots of lead breaks, lots of stuff like that.
Nick Milavoy:Without you.
Jason Shadrick:I knew it.
Jason Shadrick:I knew something like that was coming.
Nick Milavoy:Look, we gotta talk about it, man.
Nick Milavoy:That's not a great album.
Nick Milavoy:I'm not gonna say Van Allen 3 is a great album.
Nick Milavoy:I'm not gonna say it's a good album.
Nick Milavoy:I've.
Nick Milavoy:Because of the nature of my personality, I've been like, man, wouldn't it be awesome if Van Halen 3 were awesome?
Nick Milavoy:Maybe I should listen to it again.
Nick Milavoy:Maybe it is awesome.
Nick Milavoy:Maybe I can get.
Nick Milavoy:Maybe I can convince myself it's awesome and I put it on.
Nick Milavoy:Over the years, I've done this three or four times where I'm like, maybe.
Nick Milavoy:Maybe I could get really into this.
Nick Milavoy:Nope.
Nick Milavoy:Nope.
Nick Milavoy:Not a good album.
Jason Shadrick:Not a good album.
Jason Shadrick:Say that.
Nick Milavoy:But I will say that without you is.
Nick Milavoy:Is a cool song.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Nick Milavoy:I will say I remember watching the.
Jason Shadrick:Best song on the album.
Nick Milavoy:Best song in the album.
Nick Milavoy:I remember watching the video when it premiered on VH1.
Nick Milavoy:There was, like, hype for it.
Nick Milavoy:We're gonna play the new Van Halen album.
Jason Shadrick:Did you see the Australian concert they filmed that they aired to go along with that?
Nick Milavoy:I'm sure I did.
Nick Milavoy:I don't remember, but I'm sure I did.
Jason Shadrick:I distinctly remember that.
Jason Shadrick:It's on YouTube.
Jason Shadrick:And watching that was the first time I saw Eddie play the Mean street intro.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, wow.
Nick Milavoy:Okay.
Jason Shadrick:And I'm like, what in the heck?
Jason Shadrick:Hell is that?
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, I'm sure.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, they aired it.
Nick Milavoy:I was.
Nick Milavoy:I remember, like, sitting and watching this.
Nick Milavoy:And I remember the interviews.
Nick Milavoy:I mean, they were ridiculous.
Nick Milavoy:Eddie talked about writing that album on a toilet.
Nick Milavoy:Not all of it, presumably, but he talked about having, like, a four track recorder in his bathroom, and that's where he wrote some of the riffs.
Nick Milavoy:And like, I think it was in, you know, Guitar World or something.
Nick Milavoy:He's talking about that stuff.
Nick Milavoy:Like, come on, man.
Nick Milavoy:You know, that was.
Nick Milavoy:That was the narrative around that release.
Nick Milavoy:So, you know, make that what you will, but without you.
Nick Milavoy:Rips and his parts on, because that album is not great and because of all this Other stuff around that album.
Nick Milavoy:And, you know, really, because Gary Shiron didn't last in the band.
Nick Milavoy:It's.
Nick Milavoy:It's really.
Nick Milavoy:We.
Nick Milavoy:We never talk about Gary Strohn's presence in the band.
Nick Milavoy:So I feel like this song gets overlooked.
Nick Milavoy:Is it really one of my favorite Van Halen souls?
Nick Milavoy:I don't know, but it's one that I think needs a little bit of attention because it.
Nick Milavoy:His playing is really, really great.
Nick Milavoy:You take out the singer from it, and I.
Nick Milavoy:I actually think that.
Nick Milavoy:That.
Nick Milavoy:I think Gary sounds great on that song, but I.
Nick Milavoy:I just think, like, you take him out of it and it's just like this crazy fusion track with, like, shredding guitar.
Nick Milavoy:So.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, two seconds.
Jason Shadrick:And his.
Nick Milavoy:His tapping stuff, like the.
Nick Milavoy:In the beginning, there's all this scratching and tapping stuff.
Nick Milavoy:Like, that's like some.
Nick Milavoy:You know, that was stuff that had a different angle on it, had a different flavor than stuff he had done before.
Jason Shadrick:I feel like his tone is a bit drier and more present on this one.
Nick Milavoy:Much confrontational thing.
Jason Shadrick:Didn't use as much of the wet, dry, wet stuff, I think.
Jason Shadrick:But here's my thoughts on the Gary Sharon era.
Jason Shadrick:It was probably the biggest missed opportunity because, you know, when Sammy was in the band, they didn't do very many of the David Lee Roth stuff.
Jason Shadrick:They did a.
Jason Shadrick:You know, Panama, you know, Running with the Devil or whatever.
Jason Shadrick:And then, as in hindsight, when we look back on the.
Jason Shadrick:The tours like Sammy and Dave did, like, yeah, wasn't a good mix.
Jason Shadrick:Whatever.
Jason Shadrick:Gary, since he didn't have any real emotional connection to any of those eras, but yet could sing them all, he was gonna.
Jason Shadrick:To me, he was gonna be the guy that's like, finally, you can go to.
Jason Shadrick:You can go to a Van Halen concert, and you can hear the entire catalog.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, right.
Jason Shadrick:You know, but, yeah, RIP Gary Sharon's time in Van Halen, we.
Nick Milavoy:We bounced a couple Gary's room videos back and forth the other day of him singing classics, and he sounded great singing that stuff.
Nick Milavoy:It's a shame that he, you know, that.
Jason Shadrick:That didn't continue the instrumental Primary on that record.
Nick Milavoy:What is it?
Jason Shadrick:Primary.
Jason Shadrick:And there's two of them.
Jason Shadrick:There's New World and Primary.
Nick Milavoy:New World's like the piano one.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Come on, let's.
Jason Shadrick:If we're gonna do an instrumental, guys, let's do it.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:You know what I'm saying?
Jason Shadrick:But I get it.
Jason Shadrick:That was the.
Jason Shadrick:That was a very transitional period.
Jason Shadrick:Like, Michael Anthony was on the way out.
Jason Shadrick:Wolfie was coming in.
Jason Shadrick:Gary Sharon apparently was somewhat on the way out, so.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah, all right, all right, all right.
Nick Milavoy:Number five.
Nick Milavoy:Jason.
Nick Milavoy:Make it count.
Nick Milavoy:Bro.
Jason Shadrick:Bro.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, hold on.
Jason Shadrick:I have to pull up.
Jason Shadrick:I'm gonna pull up the last studio record by Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:Oh, Different Kind of truth.
Nick Milavoy:Yes.
Jason Shadrick:Now, the track is she's the Woman.
Nick Milavoy:Might be the best song on the album.
Jason Shadrick:Might be the best song on the album.
Jason Shadrick:Now, I like.
Jason Shadrick:I like the fact that some people didn't at the time.
Jason Shadrick:I like the fact that they dug into their archives and if I remember right, Wolfie was kind of.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, that's the story.
Nick Milavoy:It was Wolfie's idea.
Jason Shadrick:Wolfie's idea.
Jason Shadrick:Or he was the one that really kind of was prodding them to do it.
Jason Shadrick:So this was an old riff.
Jason Shadrick:And apparently, according to Wikipedia, the original guitar solo ended up being the breakdown in Mean Street.
Jason Shadrick:And then Wolfgang came up with a new breakdown, had these crazy chord changes leading Ed.
Jason Shadrick:Leading Eddie to carefully plan out a new solo.
Jason Shadrick:Now, that's the connection.
Jason Shadrick:The first time he had done since Running with the Devil.
Jason Shadrick:And I didn't know that until I was just reading it here on Wikipedia, but when you listen to the solo on she's the Woman, it has that.
Jason Shadrick:It's a very similar vibe to that little part in Running with the Devil.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:That immediately came to mind when I heard this.
Jason Shadrick:When I heard this.
Jason Shadrick:It's.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, it's.
Jason Shadrick:Again, it's the best song on a.
Jason Shadrick:Not super great record.
Jason Shadrick:But I'm glad that the record was good enough or whatever that they could play some of those tunes and get out on the road for.
Jason Shadrick:What.
Jason Shadrick:What would be their last tours?
Nick Milavoy:Did you see them on that tour?
Jason Shadrick:I saw them in 90.
Jason Shadrick:I saw them on the Balance tour.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, wow.
Jason Shadrick:And I only been playing guitar for, like, a year.
Nick Milavoy:Wow, dude, that had to be.
Nick Milavoy:So.
Jason Shadrick:It was cool, but I wish I had remembered more of it because I just wasn't that deep.
Jason Shadrick:I didn't realize.
Jason Shadrick:I think Alison Chains might have opened for him.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, yeah.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:I think was the deal.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:But.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah, it's.
Jason Shadrick:She's the Woman that should have been the first single.
Jason Shadrick:Instead of flipping Tattoo, I think that.
Nick Milavoy:We would think about that album differently.
Nick Milavoy:We collectively, the world, you know, would think about that album differently if.
Nick Milavoy:If that were the case.
Nick Milavoy:Because Tattoo was so bad.
Jason Shadrick:It's so bad.
Nick Milavoy:It was such a bad song.
Nick Milavoy:But I have no qualms with that album.
Nick Milavoy:I have a friend.
Nick Milavoy:My friend Dan Monahan has a lot to say about this album.
Nick Milavoy:If we ever want to do A really deep dive.
Nick Milavoy:He is.
Nick Milavoy:No.
Nick Milavoy:He can go down every song.
Nick Milavoy:Super into this album and he's inspired me to come back to it with.
Nick Milavoy:With Open.
Nick Milavoy:Like I kind of thought like, ah, it's a.
Nick Milavoy:It's a good album.
Nick Milavoy:I'm glad it happened.
Nick Milavoy:But he inspired me.
Nick Milavoy:A couple months ago we, like, we got deep on this album and I came back to it and I.
Nick Milavoy:I think I hadn't given it a fair shake since it had come out.
Nick Milavoy:There's some Roth stuff on here that's a little cheesy for me.
Nick Milavoy:And it colors to say it nicely.
Nick Milavoy:Tattoo, obviously, I don't think there's anything redeeming about Tattoo, but Blood and Fire is an excellent song.
Nick Milavoy:She's the Woman is an excellent song as is.
Nick Milavoy:Is great.
Nick Milavoy:But I kind of.
Nick Milavoy:There's something about all of them that is awesome.
Nick Milavoy:Just at times you have to just like I.
Nick Milavoy:And I'm a huge David Lee Roth fan, but I don't think it's his best work and I've had to sort of.
Nick Milavoy:If you tune him out and you just listen to that album loud, don't listen to the words he's saying.
Nick Milavoy:Just think of him as an instrumental texture.
Nick Milavoy:I.
Nick Milavoy:I'm in.
Nick Milavoy:I like this record.
Nick Milavoy:And I got to see them on this tour and that's the only time I saw them, man.
Nick Milavoy:I thought that they just sounded so great.
Nick Milavoy:I got very lucky at this show.
Nick Milavoy:I bought tickets.
Nick Milavoy:I think I can't.
Nick Milavoy:We bought four tickets and you know, they were pretty expensive, so I bought these.
Nick Milavoy:I bought like it was obstructed view seats.
Nick Milavoy:Like not good seats.
Nick Milavoy:And it was.
Jason Shadrick:Are you behind the stage?
Nick Milavoy:Like it was like semi behind the stage and it was me and.
Nick Milavoy:Me and my wife and my mom and her ex husband.
Nick Milavoy:And so we're like.
Nick Milavoy:We're kind of up top obstructively.
Nick Milavoy:We go to our section and there's a guy there.
Nick Milavoy:There's nobody sitting in the section.
Nick Milavoy:He takes our tickets and he goes, let me see all four of them.
Nick Milavoy:And he takes them and he goes, here's your new seats.
Nick Milavoy:We're row 23.
Nick Milavoy:They just closed the section, I guess.
Nick Milavoy:I don't know if not enough people bought those tickets or what.
Nick Milavoy:I don't know how this happened, but we ended up with these like amazing seats and cool.
Nick Milavoy:And the gang opened and then Van Halen came out and just destroyed.
Nick Milavoy:It's one of the greatest concerts I've ever gone to.
Nick Milavoy:Where's getting to share that.
Nick Milavoy:Share a room with that band, man?
Nick Milavoy:I thought it would never happen.
Nick Milavoy:This was the Wells Fargo center in Philly.
Jason Shadrick:Wells Fargo.
Nick Milavoy:And so.
Nick Milavoy:So check this out.
Nick Milavoy:I have a little show and tell.
Nick Milavoy:I had seen this bumper sticker before that I think was from the.
Nick Milavoy:What was it?
Nick Milavoy:07.
Nick Milavoy:When they did the.
Nick Milavoy:The Sammy David Lee Roth tour that didn't.
Nick Milavoy:The ill fated Sammy David Lee Roth tour.
Nick Milavoy:And I always wanted to buy one of these bumper stickers, and they didn't sell it at this show.
Nick Milavoy:Like, man, I'll never see it.
Nick Milavoy:A couple years ago, I take a picture of somebody with this bumper sticker.
Nick Milavoy:Like, man, I wish I had this.
Nick Milavoy:My neighbor is a graphic designer.
Nick Milavoy:He made one for me.
Nick Milavoy:He surprised he made more than one because I have one here.
Nick Milavoy:But on my car, I have this bumper sticker.
Nick Milavoy:So this is a.
Nick Milavoy:This is a bootleg version of the Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:It's not focusing because it's.
Nick Milavoy:It's.
Nick Milavoy:It's on shiny paper, but that's cool.
Nick Milavoy:The Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:I can barely see the road.
Nick Milavoy:This is my tour souvenir, even though I didn't buy it there because it was the wrong tour.
Jason Shadrick:Bootleg.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Jason Shadrick:That's great about those tickets.
Jason Shadrick:My first fish show, I sat behind the stage.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah.
Nick Milavoy:Was it cool?
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, it was cool.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, you know, they had.
Jason Shadrick:It was very open stage, so it wasn't like a.
Jason Shadrick:It wasn't like I was looking at, like, a video wall the whole time.
Jason Shadrick:We could actually see the back of the band and stuff, but we would do that.
Jason Shadrick:Here's a.
Jason Shadrick:Here's some inside baseball for you.
Jason Shadrick:A lot of times when we would go film rig rundowns.
Nick Milavoy:Mm.
Jason Shadrick:And they would be like.
Jason Shadrick:You know, back in the day, we'd have to drive hours and hours to go film one of these.
Jason Shadrick:Right.
Jason Shadrick:So sometimes we couldn't stay for the show.
Jason Shadrick:They would give us tickets to the show.
Jason Shadrick:We couldn't stay at the show.
Jason Shadrick:So we'd hang around just long enough till people started coming into the venue.
Jason Shadrick:And then we'd take our passes, and they weren't backstage passes.
Jason Shadrick:They were just really good seats.
Jason Shadrick:We would take our tickets, and we'd go way up to the back, and we'd look for, like, two people, like, hey, you two.
Jason Shadrick:And we give them our tickets and say, we got.
Jason Shadrick:Why don't you go down?
Jason Shadrick:That's really.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, no, we're cool.
Nick Milavoy:So.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, that's cool.
Jason Shadrick:All right, you got the last pick.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, I got one more.
Nick Milavoy:Okay, I'm going to go.
Nick Milavoy:Really obvious this time.
Nick Milavoy:Enough has been said about this.
Nick Milavoy:I Don't think anything more needs to be said.
Nick Milavoy:But I don't feel like this list is complete without talking about the Beat it solo.
Nick Milavoy:Does that count?
Nick Milavoy:Does that not count?
Nick Milavoy:Was.
Nick Milavoy:Was.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, it counts.
Nick Milavoy:A Van Halen solo, not an Eddie Van Halen solo.
Jason Shadrick:No, no, it counts.
Jason Shadrick:I'm not telling you what to do.
Jason Shadrick:You run the ship.
Nick Milavoy:Man.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, I know, I know.
Nick Milavoy:Listen, hear me out.
Nick Milavoy:It's super obvious.
Nick Milavoy:And when I first put it on this list, I was like, no, I'm not talking about Beat It.
Nick Milavoy:People have talked about Beat it to Death.
Nick Milavoy:But then it was like, I can't take it off the list.
Nick Milavoy:It's so good.
Nick Milavoy:His composition of that solo is one of the greatest guitar solos that have ever.
Nick Milavoy:I mean, of course, because it's him, but I'd put it in top 10 guitar solos ever, bro.
Jason Shadrick:That was a solo that led to the dissolution of the Roth era.
Nick Milavoy:That's right.
Jason Shadrick:So.
Jason Shadrick:All right.
Jason Shadrick:I don't know.
Jason Shadrick:What?
Jason Shadrick:I don't know.
Jason Shadrick:I mean.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, yeah.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, you're not wrong.
Jason Shadrick:You're not wrong, but.
Jason Shadrick:So run down your five real quick.
Nick Milavoy:Hop for Teacher.
Nick Milavoy:I'll wait.
Nick Milavoy:DOA without you.
Nick Milavoy:Beat It, Push comes Special.
Nick Milavoy:Special mention was right now.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, Mine were Push Comes to Shove.
Jason Shadrick:Somebody get me a doctor.
Jason Shadrick:The dream is over.
Jason Shadrick:Afu.
Jason Shadrick:She's the woman.
Jason Shadrick:Honorable mention, Mean Street.
Jason Shadrick:And the second solo in Unchained.
Jason Shadrick:The Outro solo and Unchained.
Jason Shadrick:Okay, I think with those 10 tracks, you're gonna get a pretty good cross section of all.
Nick Milavoy:You're gonna know a lot about Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, you're gonna know a lot about Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:So let us know your list.
Jason Shadrick:What we got right, what we got wrong.
Jason Shadrick:Drop the comments down.
Jason Shadrick:Send us an email, send us a text.
Jason Shadrick:But, yeah, I think we.
Jason Shadrick:I think we got through it all.
Nick Milavoy:Can I tell you about my biggest musical regret?
Jason Shadrick:Not going to see them again.
Nick Milavoy:No, I didn't have a chance to see them again.
Nick Milavoy:It was like.
Nick Milavoy:I mean, they didn't come through again, I guess, you know, I could have traveled somewhere to see them again, but that was last tour.
Nick Milavoy:No, my biggest regret is that I met Eddie Van Halen and I did not have him sign my guitar.
Jason Shadrick:Tell me the story.
Jason Shadrick:You've told me a story again.
Jason Shadrick:Give me the quick.
Nick Milavoy:So I used to work at this store, music store out in the Philly suburbs called Richborough Music.
Nick Milavoy:And this is not close to the city or anything.
Nick Milavoy:It's 45 minutes outside of Center City in Bucks County.
Nick Milavoy:And not.
Nick Milavoy:You would Never ever think that this would happen.
Nick Milavoy:But every suburban guitar store's absolute dream came true.
Nick Milavoy:One night I was teaching guitar.
Nick Milavoy:Guy works at the counter, comes back, Eddie Van Halen's here.
Nick Milavoy:Eddie Van Halen's here.
Nick Milavoy:He's going through all the rooms, knocking on the doors.
Nick Milavoy:Eddie Van Halen's here, but is not here here.
Nick Milavoy:There's no chance.
Nick Milavoy:And so everybody's like, let's come out, you know, whatever.
Nick Milavoy:There's four or five teachers.
Nick Milavoy:Everybody comes poking their head out into the other room, guitar room.
Nick Milavoy:Sure enough, there's Eddie Van Halen just walking around like a dude in a guitar store.
Nick Milavoy:It was the end of the night.
Nick Milavoy:It's like we closed at 8:30.
Nick Milavoy:This is like 8:15.
Nick Milavoy:There he is.
Nick Milavoy:He's got his hair kind of over his face.
Nick Milavoy:He had these very ripped up jeans.
Nick Milavoy:They're probably 400 jeans, but it looks like, you know, there just looks like a mess.
Nick Milavoy:And he's kind of just like trying to lay low.
Nick Milavoy:He's.
Nick Milavoy:And he's with this 13 year old kid or however old, and like everybody's peeking in.
Nick Milavoy:He picked up a squire and he sits down with it.
Nick Milavoy:He's just like, you know, like, oh my God, what are we going to do?
Nick Milavoy:Eddie Van Halen's here.
Nick Milavoy:And so everybody's, you know, we're trying to stay out of the way.
Nick Milavoy:People are trying to be cool, but you know, it.
Nick Milavoy:It wasn't long before people, like customers started calling people Eddie Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:You got to come down to Richboro Music.
Nick Milavoy:Eddie Van Halen's here.
Nick Milavoy:Like, oh no.
Nick Milavoy:He got the vibe, you know, he had been spotted.
Nick Milavoy:I guess he thought he could come in anonymously.
Nick Milavoy:But he, he got out of there.
Nick Milavoy:He didn't drive himself.
Nick Milavoy:He had been dropped off, him and this kid.
Nick Milavoy:And so then he like, he leaves.
Nick Milavoy:He's like, what time you guys open in the morning?
Nick Milavoy:They tell him, my boss tells them.
Nick Milavoy:He's like, okay, I'll come back.
Nick Milavoy:And not that it was like blowing up.
Nick Milavoy:I think he just sort of.
Nick Milavoy:My memory is that he just sort of, you know, got out of there, picked up a couple guitars and then split.
Nick Milavoy:And he's waiting for his ride out front and people are coming up to him, shaking his hand and having him sign things.
Nick Milavoy:And he was totally cool and totally nice to everybody.
Nick Milavoy:I was like, this is pretty weird.
Nick Milavoy:Like he's, he's standing outside.
Nick Milavoy:He's not, he has left the store.
Nick Milavoy:And I was like 21, 22 years old.
Nick Milavoy:And I, I felt like it was Just awkward.
Nick Milavoy:Like, I felt like it was odd that people were.
Nick Milavoy:People were doing this, like, because he wanted to clearly be private.
Nick Milavoy:And so I was like, I gotta.
Nick Milavoy:I gotta say something.
Nick Milavoy:But, like, I'm not gonna ask him to sign anything.
Nick Milavoy:And I had thought, like, I should get him to sign my guitar.
Nick Milavoy:That would be so cool.
Nick Milavoy:And I decided not to.
Nick Milavoy:And I just, like, shook his hand.
Nick Milavoy:I was like, hey, Eddie, I'm a big fan.
Nick Milavoy:Thank you.
Nick Milavoy:And he's like, oh, yeah, man.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, right on.
Nick Milavoy:You know, like, you know nothing.
Nick Milavoy:But I shook his hand and, you know, this lady came and picked him and the kid up.
Nick Milavoy:He came back the next day, apparently bought a bunch of guitars, all cheap stuff.
Nick Milavoy:And he bought them for this kid who, it turns out the story ended up being, for some amount of time, he was dating a woman who lived in the neighborhood.
Nick Milavoy:And I don't remember why or how that happened, but for a while they were dating and the kid was her son.
Nick Milavoy:And he.
Nick Milavoy:He just bought this kid a bunch of gear that he was going to, like, keep at the house and.
Nick Milavoy:And jam on.
Nick Milavoy:And there is a guitar player who we recently did a rig rundown with.
Nick Milavoy:Michael Lemo.
Nick Milavoy:I don't know him personally, but I.
Nick Milavoy:I met him once at Norman's.
Nick Milavoy:Was like, he.
Nick Milavoy:I.
Nick Milavoy:I forget how I knew or something.
Nick Milavoy:And.
Nick Milavoy:Or he said he was from Bucks county and mentioned Eddie Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:I was like, I also met Eddie Van Halen in that time.
Nick Milavoy:I think Michael was best friends with the kid who came into the store with him.
Nick Milavoy:And he, like, you know, he.
Nick Milavoy:He tells the story on a rig rundown, I believe, about Eddie Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:So I'll let him tell the story.
Nick Milavoy:But he had this experience of he's from that area and, you know, got to spend time.
Nick Milavoy:I.
Nick Milavoy:I just shook his hand.
Nick Milavoy:But afterwards I thought, like, man, everybody was having him sign autographs.
Nick Milavoy:I, like, had this idea that I shouldn't ask him to sign.
Nick Milavoy:Sign my guitar.
Nick Milavoy:I should just sign him.
Nick Milavoy:Sign.
Nick Milavoy:So I don't know.
Nick Milavoy:Maybe that's my biggest musical regret.
Jason Shadrick:You never know.
Jason Shadrick:He did come to namm one year at least.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, one year fairly.
Jason Shadrick:I mean, in the last 15 years that I knew about, he was just kind of.
Jason Shadrick:I.
Jason Shadrick:My flight was late and I just missed him.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, man.
Nick Milavoy:So did he perform?
Jason Shadrick:No, he was just rolling around the EVH booth.
Jason Shadrick:Defender booth.
Jason Shadrick:Just hanging.
Nick Milavoy:It's awesome.
Jason Shadrick:Just hanging.
Jason Shadrick:So.
Jason Shadrick:All right, we did it.
Nick Milavoy:Yep.
Nick Milavoy:We got a phone call.
Nick Milavoy:Let's.
Nick Milavoy:Let's play this call from.
Nick Milavoy:From a Listener who wanted to share some things about Eddie Van Halen.
Jeff Kushmarek:Hi, my name is Jeff Kushmarek.
Jeff Kushmarek:Big listener.
Jeff Kushmarek:Thanks for putting the humans being out there.
Jeff Kushmarek:If I need to list that as a qualifier, I'm going to probably go a little bit against the grain and think about why it might.
Jeff Kushmarek:Favorite Eddie moments.
Jeff Kushmarek:I saw them.
Jeff Kushmarek: I believe I was first on the: Jeff Kushmarek:And the soloing that Eddie does during, again, blasphemy.
Jeff Kushmarek:During.
Jeff Kushmarek:There's Only One Way to Rock.
Jeff Kushmarek:He's just focusing on a lot of leads.
Jeff Kushmarek:Sammy's kind of holding it down.
Jeff Kushmarek:And when I go and have to do some 80s stuff and I'm looking for stuff to stay steal from, that's where I go.
Jeff Kushmarek:I, you know, yes.
Jeff Kushmarek:Love first album, second album.
Jeff Kushmarek:And all that Unchained was the video I saw that got me into them and everything.
Jeff Kushmarek:But that Live Without a Net solo, all the stuff that he's doing there is just free form.
Jeff Kushmarek:He's not having to worry about holding it down.
Jeff Kushmarek:I'll also say favorite tones.
Jeff Kushmarek:I love the balance tone, man.
Jeff Kushmarek:Like, balance.
Jeff Kushmarek:Those songs are amazing.
Jeff Kushmarek:Like the Answer.
Jeff Kushmarek:Yes.
Jeff Kushmarek:People shit on the lyrics for Amsterdam, but, oh, my God, the tones that he's getting on that album are amazing.
Nick Milavoy:That album.
Jeff Kushmarek:And I love the tones on the last stuff, the last album.
Jeff Kushmarek:Different Kind of Truth and She's a Woman and stuff like that.
Jeff Kushmarek:So a lot of people will sleep on everything after Ross, but there's a lot of great stuff that comes out there.
Jeff Kushmarek:But again, I want to go listen to some Eddie Shreddy stuff.
Jeff Kushmarek:There's Only One Way to Rock.
Jeff Kushmarek:And then you listen to the rest of the stuff on that.
Jeff Kushmarek: Also the: Jeff Kushmarek:Thanks a lot, man.
Jeff Kushmarek:God's work.
Jeff Kushmarek:Appreciate it.
Jeff Kushmarek:And you still need to talk about Jimmy Herring.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, I hear you like that ending there.
Jason Shadrick:I hear you.
Nick Milavoy:All right, well, thanks for calling in.
Nick Milavoy:That's.
Nick Milavoy:Is that your.
Nick Milavoy:There you go.
Nick Milavoy:There's your favorite call.
Jason Shadrick:That might be it.
Jason Shadrick:That might be it.
Nick Milavoy:All right.
Nick Milavoy:Well, man, there's so much.
Nick Milavoy:Colin, tell us more about Eddie Van Halen.
Jason Shadrick:Yeah, yeah.
Nick Milavoy:You know what that sound means?
Jason Shadrick:That's right.
Nick Milavoy:It means our current guitar listening.
Nick Milavoy:Jason, what do you got?
Jason Shadrick:Album that recently came out here.
Jason Shadrick:When did this come out?
Jason Shadrick:Like, in the last month or so.
Jason Shadrick:Oz Noi's new one on Crisscross.
Nick Milavoy:Oh, yeah.
Jason Shadrick:Have you heard this?
Nick Milavoy:I heard.
Nick Milavoy:I heard a track.
Jason Shadrick:So mostly jazz Standards Solar Ruby, My Dear We Giant Step, Sandu, Darn that dream Milestones with David Kakoski on piano, James Genus on bass and Clarence Penn on drums called Fun One.
Jason Shadrick:And I just love how I love Oz's approach to like.
Jason Shadrick:He doesn't approach these like so preciously, you know, especially his arrangement of Sandu is really, really happening.
Jason Shadrick:And you can tell he's not playing an arch in the picture, he's playing a telly.
Jason Shadrick:I don't know if that's what he played on the record, but wouldn't surprise me if he did.
Jason Shadrick:Could have been a Gretch.
Jason Shadrick:It's definitely not a big semi hollow arch top guitar to a polytone, I'll tell you that right now.
Jason Shadrick:But.
Jason Shadrick:But yeah, he just seems like one of the few modern jazz guitar players that really sounds like they're having fun while they play.
Jason Shadrick:Like he is just messing around.
Nick Milavoy:Yeah, this is a great player.
Nick Milavoy:I gotta check that one out.
Jason Shadrick:Highly recommend Fun One by Osnoy.
Nick Milavoy:Okay.
Nick Milavoy:For me, it's Bill Orcutt's how to Rescue Things that just came out.
Nick Milavoy:I'm a big Bill Orchid fan.
Nick Milavoy:This is a really interesting one.
Nick Milavoy:I mean, they're all really interesting.
Nick Milavoy:If you're familiar with Bill Orchid, he always finds a new angle.
Nick Milavoy:His most recent guitar quartet stuff is really awesome and still, still something that I, I didn't expect him to release when he released that one.
Nick Milavoy:That was one of my favorite records last year and still get excited about that one.
Nick Milavoy:But this album, how to Rescue Things, it's like an avant garde guitar version of Charlie Parker with strings.
Nick Milavoy:He's playing over samples from easy listening records and there's like Perry Como samples and stuff like that in there and you know, coming at Christmas time, especially when that music is like, I.
Nick Milavoy:You know, that's.
Nick Milavoy:That's when all the oldies come out, they're on the radio and we listen to a lot of Christmas music here in my house.
Nick Milavoy:So this just, you know, not that this sounds like a Christmas album, but you know, those sorts of really saccharine string arrangements and like warm nostalgic kind of sounds.
Nick Milavoy:That's what Bill's playing guitar over on here and doing his own thing with it.
Nick Milavoy:It is.
Nick Milavoy:There is no other guitar album that sounds like this.
Nick Milavoy:And it's almost, I don't want to say obvious, that's not the right word.
Nick Milavoy:But it's so aligned with things that I have like a weird soft spot for that.
Nick Milavoy:I listened, you know, when I.
Nick Milavoy:When I first heard this like the.
Nick Milavoy:After the first minute I was like, this is kind of the perfect guitar album.
Nick Milavoy:Like this is the perfect weird guitar album.
Nick Milavoy:Nobody's ever made an album like this before.
Nick Milavoy:And I highly recommend checking it out.
Jason Shadrick:All right, you got to send me a link.
Jason Shadrick:I might check that out.
Nick Milavoy:Send you a link.
Jason Shadrick:All right.
Jason Shadrick:Do we get we did it?
Jason Shadrick:I think we did so.
Jason Shadrick:All right.
Jason Shadrick:Thanks again to Tonespeak for sponsoring today's episode.
Jason Shadrick:Make sure to head over to tonespeak.com check out all their speakers.
Jason Shadrick:They're built by Hand in St.
Jason Shadrick:Paul, Minnesota.
Jason Shadrick:Thanks for the support.
Nick Milavoy:And when you want to get at us, tell us about Van Halen.
Nick Milavoy:Tell us your favorite thing you're listening to.
Nick Milavoy: -: Nick Milavoy:All right, Jason, I'll see you next week.
Jason Shadrick:All right, see you then.
