Posted Jun 25th 2009 9:30PM by TMZ Staff

He provided the rock guitar solo in Jackson’s hit song “Beat It.” TMZ has just heard from Eddie Van Halen on Michael Jackson’s death:

“I am really shocked; as I’m sure the world is, to hear the news. I had the pleasure of working with Michael on ‘Beat It’ back in ‘83 — one of my fondest memories in my career.

Michael will be missed and may he rest in peace.”

-Eddie Van Halen

There’s some fairly good quality fan-filmed footage of The ‘FOOT’s headlining performance at the Marquee in Cork, from June 23, in Ireland. Here’s the encore:

Here is the rest of the footage from the show, courtesy of “Chromeboy2003″:

Avenida Revolution
Soap on a Roap
Sexy Little Thing
Oh Yeah
Down The Drain
Learning To Fall
Future In The Past

Gary Cherone and his band, Extreme, are about to hit the road this summer in a co-headlining tour with Ratt. The tour kicks off July 12 in Amarillo, Texas and runs through August 7 in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

Extreme are touring in support of their latest album, Saudades de Rock, which was released last summer. The band, which features vocalist Gary Cherone, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, bassist Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin Figueiredo, reunited last year after a twelve year break. The album is their first studio effort in thirteen years and was produced by Bettencourt at L.A.’s NRG Studios.

Tour dates:

Jul. 10 - Pryor, OK - Rocklahoma **
Jul. 12 - Amarillo, TX - Midnight Rodeo
Jul. 13 - San Antonio, TX - Scout Bar
Jul. 14 - Odessa, TX - Dos Amigos
Jul. 16 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theater
Jul. 17 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern Theater
Jul. 18 - Las Vegas, NV - Hard Rock
Jul. 19 - Anaheim, CA - Grove
Jul. 22 - Denver, CO - Ogdon Theater
Jul. 23 - Kansas City - Crossroads
Jul. 24 - Chicago, IL - House Of Blues
Jul. 25 - Toledo OH - Harley Davidson-LOT **
Jul. 26 - Cheswick, PA - Ches-a-rena
Jul. 28 - New York, NY - Nokia Theater
Jul. 30 - Westbury, NY - Westbury Theater
Aug. 02 - Allentown, PA - Crock Rock Festival
Aug. 05 - Springfield, VA - Jaxx ***
Aug. 06 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
Aug. 07 - Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino
Aug. 08 - Clearfield, PA - Clearfield County Fairgrounds **
Aug. 15 - Sky City, NM - Sky City Casino **
Aug. 29 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Casino **

** RATT only
*** EXTREME only

Click here to view all our VH3 / Gary Cherone / Extreme stories from the past year.

Robert Downey, Jr presents the Guitar God award to Eddie Van Halen during Spike TV’s “Guy’s Choice” awards, which aired June 21st.

Thanks to MATT2productions for uploading this video to youtube.

Until yesterday, Joe Satriani had what appeared to be a lucrative and positive situation working with Peavey as a spokeman and product endorser. In fact, the company had recently introduced a signature line of amplifiers bearing the guitarists name, leading to an appearance in April at a trade show in Franfurt, Germany. As said, until yesterday. Here is a loose time line for what has turned into a strange story, seemingly overnight.

Click here to read the story.

A little update on Guitar Hero: Van Halen; the game is officially scheduled to be released during the timeframe of November/December, 2009.

Click here to listen to to Uncle Joe Benson’s May 19th interview with Chickenfoot’s Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani. From 95.5 KLOS - Southern California’s Classic Rock.