Classic Rock Magazine’s ’100 Greatest Guitarists’ Collectable EVH cover

August 27, 2009 85 Comments

The New Issue Of Classic Rock Goes On Sale Today

…And it comes with four massively collectible covers!

The September edition of Classic Rock is now on sale. It’s a special collector’s edition featuring the 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time, as chosen by the 100 greatest living guitarists.

Inside the issue you’ll discover more six-string tributes than you can shake a tremolo arm at, including:

Slash on Mick Taylor, David Gilmour on Jeff Beck, Steve Vai on Brian May, Eddie Van Halen on Eric Clapton, Kirk Hammett on Uli Jon Roth, Joe Perry on Angus Young, Billy Gibbons on BB King, Ace Frehley on Pete Townshend, Mike McCready on Michael Schenker – and many, many, many more!

The new issue of Classic Rock comes in a special cardboard wallet. Inside the wallet you’ll find one of four immensely collectible covers: Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards or Frank Zappa!

Filed Under: Eddie Van Halen, Merchandise

http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

Now THAT is a fucking rock star right there baby!
One of the coolest pics I’ve ever seen of eddie….
I’ll be picking up that issue….no doubt about it!
Ross

What a great cover…such a badass motherfucker.
Pete

Well-deserved…definitely among the greats.

I hope he uses his god-given talents on some worthy material in the time he has left. He has so much talent, and 3 new songs in 11 years is a monumental waste of his gift. I hope the coming years are good to him and for him.

Cheers to Ed…
david aguirre

el mejor guitarristas del mundo
los mejores solos del heavy metal

saludos

David

Desde Peru
ben

Long Live King Edward!
Chad

I love Eddie, but that is one gay pose, man.
theREALchris

No Page cover?!
David St. Hubbins

Did Satchmo make the 100 greatest? Just curious…
SCAR

The 100 greatest guitarists of all time as chosen by the 100 greatest living guitarists – this should be a pretty fuckin cool list!!!
McD’s

Satch IS on the regular cover above Page
http://youtube.com/esalutti Erico Salutti

Awesome pic!
Vanicionado

BURN!
Kimberly

BAD ASS!! That is all I have to say. So bad ass. Love you Eddie!!!! <3
Peedah

Ed rules all!
Karl

Hang on. Something’s not right here. From the blurb up top it looks like Ed’s commenting, but no-one’s commenting on Ed. Sorry, 100 greatest guitarists of all time not featuring Edward Van Halen? Seriously?
Karl

Oh, and Davis St. Hubbins – don’t be a tosser.
theREALchris

Karl, I’m pretty damn sure Ed’s on the list. He just happens to have great praise for Clapton. It’s probably just a reprinted interview we’ve all read where he talks about playing Cream records and learning every note.
Pete

KARL…it’s in the quote next to him on the cover page, but the name of the person doing the quoting is in such small print I can’t read it.

Cheers!
phil

very cool picture!
fernando

I hate these lists, it’s always the same…Clapton, Page, Van Halen and Beck will be # 2-5 in some order or another and Jimi Hendrix will be number 1. Y’know what, I love Hendrix and he was the 1st of the guitar gods, but if you’re actually looking at the whole picture EVH has to be #1.

1. Songwriting
2. Technique
3. Innovation
4. Impact on future guitarists
5. Plus he can play anything by any of these other guitarists
and make it sound better. That may not be fair to Hendrix, but even in his prime I couldn’t see him pulling off Eddie’s stuff. And I know Clapton and Page can’t.

Page comes in second on my list for his incredible songwriting and versatility (acoustic,Indian instruments) the man rocks on anything.

Hendrix is #3, (well actually Clapton should be number 3,for his Blues style and the work he did with Cream but he pussed-out so much in his later years that I’m giving him a 1 spot penalty

And after these 4…Who cares? Everybody else is basically somekind of imitation or another. But who knows if this list is being compiled by the guitarists themselves then there may be hope they get it right.

Oh and yeah, that is one gay pose…looks like John Mellencamp getting to know his new cell mate.
David St. Hubbins

Karl,
I asked a simple question – so what’s with the “tosser” comment? I could be rude – but I will not. I can say that if this is a ranked list that Eddie WILL place higher than Satchmo – any dillusional CF fans think differently?
EVH_Peru

De lejos Eddie Van Halen es el mejor guitarrista de rock ‘n’ roll de todos los tiempos. Una lástima que para que sea tomado en serio tenga que meterse un balazo en la sien o meterse tremenda sobredosis. Si o no, Jimmy, Kurt y Michael.

=VH= rules, baby!!!!

Omar

Lima, Peru.
Vanicionado

When it comes down to it… who really freaken cares?

Is this all some of you have in your life?

Really?

Now what? My Ford is better than your Chevy? My DeWalt cordless drill is better than your Makita?

What a waste of time!
http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

I’m gonna piss some people off right now, but personally after reading a few comments towards me for being honest i could give a shit…

Your boy satch has done NOTHING compared to what eddie brought to the table as far as HISTORY is concerned.
Am i wrong? Seriously? Am I?
Until chickenfoot formed I never heard of anything the guy has done that made an impact in the past 10-15 years.
Funny…you still hear about steve vai bigtime…but satch? Nope.
I’m not saying he’s not talented or that he’s not worthy of praise…im just saying the guy hasnt done much where people are still sitting around talking about him (Up until now obviously). Maybe if i was a guitarist I’d feel differently but I’m not. I’m just a realist and i’m sick of seeing so many people jump on bandwagons around here. Get your own views and own set of balls already! When people start talking legendary guitarists eddie is one of the first that come to mind (next to richards, jeff beck, hendrix, clapton etc)
So all you fans who want to talk shit about eddie not doing this…not doing enough of that…I step over all you fools and bow down to respect (in my eyes) the master of “reinventing” the guitar! Satch may be damn good….but he’s NO eddie. That’s for goddamn sure!
alexandre

Eddie is always the best cover for a guitar magazine, speccially when is about great guitar players (and Eddie is the greatest!!). Greetings from Brazil to all Halen’s fans, and i mean all eras!!
theREALchris

And now Duck, I will agree with you! Satch isn’t that well known, too a degree. Those who are just (simply put) guitar head-nuts, (mean that in a good way) DO know him as being an amazing guitarist with an extensive catalog of his own instrumental albums, as well as being a driving force behind the G3 shows. Summer Song is one of my personal fave Satch tracks. BUT if you aren’t into that kinda thing, and more into the a band with radio singles that actually have lyrics, then you wouldn’t know Satriani from spaghetti. Satch is no Ed, but no one is, or ever will be, and that’s what makes Ed stand out as a true legend. Satriani will be a legend too, and some might say he already is. They’re just different.
Jeff

Hey Karl,
I think it is inevitable that there will be a feature on Eddie, I think the above blurb was just giving a quick rundown on tributes that specific guitarists are giving on their idols. I don’t think the above blurb is telling us every bit of content in the magazine, just the stand-out stuff.

David St. Hubbins, although many will disagree with me here, I think that Satch should absolutely be in the top 100. I remember when Surfing With The Alien came out, and for the guitar community, it turned everyone on their ears……nobody had really ever tried to put out an all rock guitar instrumental album before, and love him or hate him, he did have influence (Vai, Hammet etc.)So while he may not deserve to be in the top 10, 20, 30 40 or 50, he certainly deserves to be in the top 100 in an issue devoted to rock guitarists….IMHO.

Vanicionado,
You are right, my DeWalt kicks ass!!!!:)
Chief

Odd that EVH would get Clapton. I recall the fairly recent Howard Stern interview with Ed, and he pretty much slammed Clapton.
http://none J5149.5

well said duck
Ludwig

King Edward Van Halen looking at his gunslin’ shredding best!!!! I’ll be getting my 3 extra copies of CR!! Why 3?

1st Copy: is for all the drooling stains.

2nd Copy: is for the bed time reading.

3rd Copy: is locked in the safe, wrapped in plastic, preserved and protected!!!
So in a thousand years from now my fellow rock n roll followers will read how the guitar gunslin’ King Edward Van Halen changed and ruled the earth!!!!
MICAL VEE

The king of 10 fingers and six strings…. MR.EDWARD VAN HALEN!!!!!!!!!! David lee roth knew just as we all know who is NO#1!!!! The list’s that are created in the magazines are opinions by who ever writes them but we know best!!!!!!!!!! I mean,how many years in a row did eddie win best guitarist. Nuff said!!!!!!!!!!
MICAL VEE

Let me add,who has had the coolest looking guitar in rock history and the most copied with the stripes!!!!!!!!!! You got it!!!
Fair Warning

How ’bout this for a top ten:

1. Sir Edward
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Steve Vai
4. Satch
5. Yngwie Malmsteen
6. Jimmy Page
7. Dimebag
8. Eric Clapton
9. Michael Schenker
10. Randy Rhoads

Your thoughts? And, yes, even though I’m not too, high on the Chickenfoot record, Satch is more than worthy.
Flying Ed

Guys (and Gals),

I’ve had this issue for a couple of weeks now (I subscribe to it in the UK); they’ve done a smart thing with it in that they’ve not ranked the guitarists, just talked about them. Ed speaks about Clapton, and Richie Kotzen speaks about Ed. Cool little story actually of his first VH concert – he spent it under the stage as they shared a guitar tech, got a hell of a view of the action apparently.

Anyway, carry on with the discussion/arguments ! Man, why do some retards have to turn EVERY STORY on the VHND into an argument of Dave vs Sammy, VH vs Chickenfoot etc….. Chill the f*ck out and enjoy the music !

Ed
Karl

Hubbins, your comment was loaded. This is confirmed By your “dillusional CF fans” comment.
Karl

Ducky, “Your boy satch”? Grow up.
Corey

Fair warning, personally I think Paul Gilbert should replace malmsteen as number 5
Karl

^ It’s hard to understand why Malmsteen gets so such respect. He’s a one trick pony. It’s a good trick, but a trick nevertheless.
Pete

DUCKY BABY…I don’t disagree at all that Ed’s career has been more prolific than Satch’s. I don’t think that’s much in dispute.

However, I have one pretty cool thing about Satch that makes him special, and I think you’d probably agree too.

Satch created the genre that allowed future players like Vai and Johnson to have careers in non-vocal bands. There have always been instrumental guys. But Satch was the first to figure out the business side as well as the music side and to do it in such a way where neither suffered.

If you think of the millions Satch has made playing non-mainstream music, I think that’s a pretty cool achievement.

Duck…what do you think? Lay it on me man…
Kevin Malone

One of the worst pix of Ed I have ever seen!

Is that strap a seat belt?
Bocephus

Eddie Van Halen
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
David Gilmour
Mark Knopfler
Jimi Hendrix
Randy Rhoads
Alex Leifson
Steve Howe
Jeff Beck
pushtoshove

I like Makitas! Please no best guitarist lists on here!! Eddie looks like he’s competing with Leif garret for the most gay pose of all time…” Hot Child In The City! ” ……Boy Howdy!!!
http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

Karl…

Grow up!!?

Never! Whats the fun in that?
bangkokbobby

good list, FW…it’s all so personal…but for me, my Top 10

personal listening:

1. EVH
2. Steve Vai
3. Jimi Hendrix
4. Steve Morse
5. Randy Rhoads
6. Joe Satriani
7. Michael Hedges
8. Shawn Lane
9. Stanley Jordan
10. Yngwie Malmsteen

influence on other guitarists:

1. EVH (gets the nod over Jimi for EVH’s gear innovations)
2. Jimi Hendrix
3. Jimmy Page
4. Eric Clapton
5. Randy Rhoads
6. Yngwie Malmsteen
7. Stevie Ray Vaughan
8. Chuck Berry
9. Albert King
10. Jeff Beck
theREALchris

bangkokbobby-
You almost have to put Clapton and Page above Ed on your influence list. Ed was heavily influenced by Clapton on the old Cream records, and he got the whole tapping idea from hearing Pagey on Heartbreaker.
http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

Pete:

I see where you’re coming from, and I appreciate someone like yourself who does his homework and doesnt just type: fuck you.
Personally I’ve never been a big fan of satch. Never really enjoyed his playing. Have i followed his whole career? No, but sometimes it’s about the feel of what you hear. I just never “got that” with him. I do agree that he paved the way, but funny you mention that. I thought Vai was the one who started that? Could be wrong…
Did i ever tell you that my aunt dated steve vai back in the early 70′s? I grew up in carle place NY. Went to the same highschool vai graduated from. Carle place high. A music teacher i used to know would tell stories all the time about vai back in the day when he was just a teen. He would say that after school when many of the kids had left, steve would stay behind and just practice in one of these small little music rooms. You would hear his playing all through the hallways…always thought that was a cool story.
Tonight I’m heading back to my hometown to celebrate a friends bday. The bar I’m going to Vai frequents often when he’s visiting or playing in the area. There’s pictures of him all over the bar so it’s actually cool knowing that any min i could be having a cold one and in he walks…..
I’ll keep you posted!
Karl

Ducky, you have a point!
Cam Winston

Love Ed, but the only thing gayer than that pose was Billy Squier’s “Rock me tonite” music video.
http://none Ducky / Dirty Duck

Whats with all this gay talk?

There is NOTHING gay about eddie van halen.

As far as the pose and the look? I love it.
The 70′s rockstars looked fuckin’ badass in my book.
blake

Cam Winston. you are 100% correct about that photo.these guys love the gay Eddie look.