Eddie Van Halen crying during the meeting is a moving memory for the Green Day singer.
Billie Joe Armstrong has spoken about his first encounter with Eddie Van Halen. According to the Green Day singer, Van Halen started crying when the two musicians met backstage.
In conversation with Howard Stern, Armstrong’s love for Van Halen came up. A concert by the hard rock band was the first that the future Green Day frontman ever attended. “When I saw Van Halen in 1984, I was twelve years old. They were my favorite band and I cried,” Armstrong recalled. “It was like his guitar playing came from a different place. He reinvented how to play the guitar. They also wrote great songs, which is the main thing I took from Van Halen. The songs were just so damn great.”
This is how Green Day and Van Halen met
He later met Eddie Van Halen himself. “That was when Van Halen and David Lee Roth had just gotten back together,” said Billie Joe Armstrong of a concert in 2007. “A few friends and I got on a plane to to see her in Kansas City. We didn’t want to do it in California because we knew it would suck.” Kansas City, on the other hand, was “incredible” – just like Armstrong’s meeting with Van Halen was “emotional.” “I got Wolfie first [Van Halen] who was super cool, and then they said, ‘Do you want to meet Eddie?'” Armstrong continued. “And then there he was, with his guitar plugged in and playing for our entertainment at the same time, and I was like, ‘Oh my God!'”
Moving words for Billie Joe Armstrong
When the two musicians greeted each other and Armstrong commented on Eddie Van Halen’s big hands, the memorable moment occurred: “Then this crazy thing happened, he started crying,” said Armstrong. “He looked at me, put his hand on the back of my neck and said, ‘You’re the only one who understands me.'” The Green Day singer didn’t know how to react. “I said, ‘You have no idea how much you mean to me as a musician and songwriter.’ And he said, ‘People think I’m an alien the way I play,’ to which I said, ‘It’s all about your songs.’ That was a tough experience.”
According to Armstrong’s report, the meeting ended when Wolfgang Van Halen entered the room to tune the instruments. But the Green Day singer was also able to tell a heartwarming story about this moment: “Eddie said the coolest thing, a real father-son moment: ‘Do you want to tune me in or do I want you to tune in?’ This connection between father and son as musicians has stuck with me as a wonderful thing.”
Bille Joe Armstrong is currently promoting Green Day’s new album. SAVIORS is out today; The band will soon be going on tour in Europe.