Rob Halford of Judas Priest has some advice for his fellow grieving Van Halen fans.
“Like we always do. Like I did when I lost Ronnie [James Dio] and I lost Lemmie [of Motörhead], put the music on and turn the music up,” Halford said during a recent interview with Sirius/XM following the October 6th death of Eddie Van Halen. “That’s the greatest way you can celebrate these incredible musicians and in this case the legendary Eddie Van Halen.”
Halford said he discovered Eddie and the band Van Halen the way most of his generation did – by hearing the band’s iconic 1978 debut album.
“When Van Halen’s first album came out I remember I was still living at home at the Beechdale estate [in Walsall] and Judas Priest’s manager at the time Dave Corke comes over to my place, bangs on the door [and] he goes ‘You’ve gotta come listen to this band! I’ve just been sent this cassette, it’s this band called Van Halen! You’ve gotta listen to this cassette!’ I haven’t got a cassette player at home. I had a record player but not a cassette player so I went and sat in his car and we put the cassette on, the very first Van Halen album, and I was just stunned. I was stunned by firstly the guitar virtuosity of Eddie but just the whole expression of this band Van Halen. And we sat there in the dark, in his car and we listened to the whole record. So that was my introduction to the great Eddie Van Halen.”
Hear more of Halford’s Van Halen memories including when Judas Priest opened for Van Halen and more below courtesy of Sirius/XM‘s YouTube page.