Hootie & The Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan says he’s a “gigantic” Van Halen fan and praises Edward Van Halen’s ability to come up with undeniable riffs.
“I wanna say this because everybody puts him on the top with the guitar playing [makes fingers on the fretboard impression] and he is but he’s also one of the all-time greatest riff masters,” Bryan said during a recent appearance on The Paltrocast. “[He] came up with these song riffs like Jimmy Page did with Zeppelin where you’re like, ‘What a f—-n’ riff‘, you know? And so Eddie is, I think, underappreciated for that. His songwriting riff ability, it blows me away.”
Bryan said he was able to express his appreciation for Edward when he met him in 1996.
“We were at the Grammys. The one where we won the two Grammys in, I guess it was ’96,” said Bryan. “We shared a dressing room with Van Halen. Van Hagar-Van Halen. We shared the dressing [room], [we had] the same couches there. [It] was all our room so we come in, and they’re all super cool. And we’re meeting them and shaking hands with them and everything, and I tell Eddie what an influence he is on me, and I talk about the riff thing and everything, and he just gives me this big hug. A friendly guy, he has a big smile on his face. All of them were so cool, Alex too. Just super cool guys, man. Michael Anthony couldn’t have been cooler. So that was our first experience. [It] was sharing a dressing room with them, and there’s a picture from the afterparty with me and Eddie Van Halen and Emmy Lou Harris and Daniel Lanois and I feel I’ve never felt cooler in my life.”