Luckiest 12 year old ever?

CashInFist · Jun 30, 2010

This guitar comes with a great story. Picture this if you will. It's 1982 and the biggest rock band in the world is VAN HALEN. I was 12 years old and had only been playing guitar for 9 months. Eruption and the Mean Streets intro were on a constant loop in my head. I was signed up to play at my school talent show. It was coming up in a week. I was going to play "Running With The Devil" with my little teenage rocking combo.

In the days before the show we received a phone call at our house from a guy claiming to be Edward Van Halen. My mom answered the phone and talked with him for a bit. She whispered to me, "This guy says he's Eddie Van Halen, pick up the other phone and listen to see if you think it really is." Of course I jumped for the other phone extension and quietly picked it up. I heard a gritty voice on the other end talking about wanting to come over and meet Frank Zappa. I had no reference of the sound of Edward Van Halen's voice except for the possible long shot audio clip from Unchained where a voice is heard saying, "Come on Dave, give us a break." I thought maybe that was Edward's voice, or maybe it was Ted Templeman's voice? It didn't matter. I wanted it to be Edward Van Halen so I said to Gail, "It's him... it has to be him!"

Frank picked up the phone and talked for a short time. He hung up the phone saying, "Okay I'll see you in a few minutes." 20 minutes later Edward Van Halen was at our house. He had a new guitar with him. A purple Kramer with a piece of tape covering the logo. Frank called Steve Vai and asked him to come over. What followed as the coolest night a 12 year old guitar player could ever imagine, or perhaps any guitar player. Edward Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Frank Zappa all passed around this new purple guitar. Occasionally I would fumble around on it as well...
Click to expand...

Read the rest here:

http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/articles/15-van-halen-star-guitar

You guys gotta read the rest of this story. It's unbelievable!

BigDogsHunt · Jun 30, 2010

Well, if your dad is Frank Zappa and the crowd he ran with, and all those like Eddy V. that wanted to meet him; its not all that unbelievable....great story, just not unbelievable for those at the top of their respective same profession to want to meet up, and yes, a 12 year old got to benefit.

Not much different than Ken Griffey Jr, running around the clubhouse as a kid, with all those guys from the Big Red Machine days, etc, etc,.

anlgp · Jun 30, 2010

Meh

that I didn't learn 80's guitar soloing.

Pagan would ban me if he could

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Luckiest 12 year old ever?

CashInFist Well-Known Member

BigDogsHunt Enough talk...prove it!

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Luckiest 12 year old ever?

CashInFist Well-Known Member

BigDogsHunt Enough talk...prove it!

anlgp ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A

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