“He said, ‘I know Eddie Van Halen. I have enough money that if I wanted to have him play on this, I could. I want you to play on it’”: Pete Evick has played with Bret Michaels for 21 years. Here’s what he learned

PITTSBURGH, PA - JANUARY 14: Pete Evick of the Bret Michaels band performs onstage at the Steelers Playoff Party at Stage AE on January 14, 2011 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joey Foley/Getty Images).

As an up-and-coming guitarist, Pete Evick found himself caught between the song-first approach of Ace Frehley and the futurist shred of Eddie Van Halen.

“I don’t know about anyone else in my scene, but I felt a lot of pressure to know how to do everything,” he says. “But my soul always knew just to be myself. That’s the only way to really win.”