Dweezil Zappa shared a special memory about the time Eddie Van Halen showed up at his house and played Eruption right in front of him.
As the son of Frank Zappa, Dweezil had an unusual childhood, but nothing compared to this moment. When he was 12, his mom answered the phone and told him someone named “Edward Van Halen” was calling. Dweezil had never heard Eddie’s voice before, only seen his pictures on album covers, so he was surprised.
After talking to Frank Zappa for a few minutes, Eddie arrived at their house just 15 minutes later. He looked just like he did on the Women and Children First album cover, wearing a jumpsuit and a Van Halen necklace. He brought his guitar but didn’t even put it in a case.
“My mom answers the phone and she’s like, ‘This guy says he’s Edward Van Halen.’ I’m 12 and I’ve never heard him speak before. Never even heard of an interview. I’ve only seen pictures of him on albums and stuff. So he’s saying he wants to talk to my dad.”
He added:
“My dad gets on the phone with him. They talk for a few minutes, and 15 minutes later, he’s at our house. And he’s wearing the jumpsuit from the Women and Children First album cover and a necklace with the Van Halen logo and he walks in with a guitar not in the case.”
For young Dweezil, it felt like a superhero had just walked into his home. The first thing he asked Eddie was to play Eruption. Watching Eddie perform it up close was life-changing for him—it made him want to become a guitarist.
Later, Eddie taught Dweezil how to play some of Van Halen’s famous guitar tricks, like tapping on the strings. Dweezil did it a little differently than Eddie, but he learned a lot. He also noticed that Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen, plays the same way as his dad.
Years later, Dweezil got to teach Eddie something too—a tricky guitar part from a Frank Zappa song that Eddie couldn’t quite figure out. It was a fun and special moment for Dweezil, like the student becoming the teacher.
He walked up the staircase into the studio. For me, he might as well have been backlit with a smoke. [He was] like a superhero walking up the steps. Before there was even a ‘Hello,’ I was like ‘Play ‘Eruption” and I got to see it up close. And that’s the moment I was like, ‘I need to do this.'”
