“He went into this trance state as he played. I’d be sitting there at the console and he would lean on me while he was playing. And it was kind of weird – it was like it was coming through me”: A close encounter with the genius of Eddie Van Halen

EVH in 1986.

In 1985, when Van Halen singer David Lee Roth quit the band, Eddie Van Halen was left facing the toughest challenge of his career.

Eddie was the most famous guitar player on the planet — the guy who had revolutionised the art of rock guitar in the late-'70s, and had got the call from Michael Jackson to play the solo on his mega-hit Beat It from Thriller, the biggest-selling album of all time.