When your first recording session involved playing a guitar solo on the title track from Kiss’ Creatures Of The Night, there is no way your career was ever headed to Dullsville, and so it came to pass that Steve Farris would lead a life less ordinary.
He didn’t get the Kiss gig full-time. He might sound a note of regret about it (he never did learn how to sing). But things worked out okay. He made his bones with Eddie Money, before joining Mr Mister and making it big, and being called in for high-profile sessions with the likes of Diana Ross, Kenny Loggins and Celine Dione, and playing live with Whitesnake and Rod Stewart.
This week Farris welcomed Mason Marangella of Vertex Effects to his Nebraska home for a career-spanning conversation (and a meal of slow-cooked wild goose), and shared some of the stories behind those career highlights, and the gear he used to record them. Much of these sessions exist on record. Some were captured by photographers. But there was one particular memory of which Farris would dearly like to see the tape back, and that’s when he jammed with Eddie Van Halen.
Farris had met the late guitar icon before, back when in 1982 when he was playing with Eddie Money.
“We were up in Fresno, and we played a big club there. I don’t know the name of it. Van Halen was playing in the arena the same night,” he says. “Eddie Money knew Van Halen because they used to open for Eddie when he was bigger and they hadn’t gotten there yet.”
At Money’s suggest, they head over to the Hilton to visit Van Halen. They go up to Van Halen’s floor. They had biker guys on security detail. Money is rapping to all and sundry trying to get in until he catches David Lee Roth’s attention and he waves them on in.
“Eddie Money goes to David Lee Roth’s room. This is so classic,” says Farris. “He has got a stereo and he’s listening to Tres Hombres, ZZ Top, and he’s in front of the mirror, posing with his muscles, and he’s with his trainer, and they’re working out.”
Roth keeps on talking. His blood is up. He’s enjoying the company.
“He’s a very entertaining guy,” continues Farris. “He’s very gregarious. There’s three girls sitting on the bed. They never said a word the whole time I was there.”
Eddie Money and Diamond Dave had frontman business to talk about. They were deep in conversation, so Farris and Van Halen’s lighting engineer Pete Angelus decided to occupy themselves with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. They duly polish it off.
“By the time we’re leaving, I am shitfaced,” admits Farris. “I’m walking down the hallway to leave, I’m at the elevator, and Eddie Van Halen pops out of his room.”
Again, Eddie Money shouts, “It’s the Money Man!” and disappears into EVH’s room. Farris is left out in the hallway. Eventually he knocks. Eddie Van Halen’s then-wife, Valerie Bertinelli, opens, is real sore at him, at everyone, and just wants everyone out for a bit of peace and quiet. Only Farris is pulled into the room and Eddie Money is talking again and telling Eddie Van Halen how brilliant Farris is, and how he had played with Kiss, and all Farris can say to EVH by this point is, “You’re a fucking great guitar player”. And that was it.
Years later, though, things were different. It was NAMM, 1992. Both were on the Peavey artist roster and scheduled to play together. Farris was playing a few songs with Randy Jackson, Jonathan ‘Sugarfoot’ Moffett on drums, and Rick Seratte on keyboards.
“We were playing at their booth for those three days,” says Farris. “We were playing some instrumental songs that I wrote, but then we were going to play with Eddie Van Halen over [at] the Marriott on one night for the Peavey invites. It was a big ballroom, maybe a couple of hundred, maybe more.”
Farris distinctly remembers the moment Eddie Van Halen showed up for rehearsals with his guitar tech, Zeke Clark, in tow.
We ended up playing Led Zeppelin songs. He and I switched guitars. I started playing his rig. He’s playing mine
“We rehearsed. We were in there playing and then Zeke comes in with Eddie Van Halen,” says Farris. “Zeke’s preparing his guitar and Eddie’s carrying a six-pack of beer, and he’s drinking. And we meet Eddie Van Halen and he’s a super-nice guy. He’s very smiley. He’s Eddie Van Halen! We get to talking, we get to playing, he’s got his rig there and I’ve got my rig, and he wants to play Superstition, the Beck, Bogert & Appice version. And so we learned that. We played that.”
But they kept on playing. Farris was about to get a first-hand appreciation of how EVH could mimic another player like it was nothing. They started tossing around Led Zeppelin riffs, and it was clear that Van Halen had been paying attention to Jimmy Page’s work.
“We ended up playing Led Zeppelin songs. He and I switched guitars. I started playing his rig. He’s playing mine,” recalls Farris. “We’re playing Led Zeppelin songs, and he was like, ‘Steve, is this Jimmy or what?’ And he’d imitate Jimmy Page, play a solo, complete with a few mistakes. I mean, he had it down, everything – which, also, Eddie can play anything. He was crazy on guitar, which we all know but I might as well tell you he was all that.”
The next day is show day. And this is is when Eddie Van Halen, the lead guitar player for Van Halen, the definitive guitar-playing rock star of the ‘80s arrives.
“I think we played one song without him and then, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Eddie Van Halen… And he comes walking out side of stage, guitar out, smiling that million dollar smile, walking across the stage,” says Farris. “There was times when I was with those guys, – like David Coverdale – you’re like, ‘Rockstar. A fucking rockstar!’ So, Eddie comes in and he’s smiling and just larger than life, and we end up playing Superstition. We did that and then he looks at me kind of like, ‘We need to play an encore. What should we do?’ I said, [plays riff] ‘We’ll play Tush. So we starting playing Tush together, we traded solos, the whole fucking thing.”
This was one of those occasions in life that you don’t forget. It was a moment to cherish, especially after Eddie Van Halen’s passing in 2020. But Farris has one regret from the evening. He didn’t call Eddie to do it all again sometime – and no one thought to tape the whole performance.
“This is me. I’m boneheaded about it sometimes,” he says. “I was a very good networker, still am, but I still chose to be an idiot. Like, Eddie said at that point, ‘We gotta hang out! We gotta hang out!’ Did I ever call him? No. I’m just a dipshit sometimes. But anyway, I got to play with him.”
Check out the full interview with Farris above and subscribe to the Vertex Effects YouTube channel here.
