Nancy Wilson said her Eddie Van Halen tribute song “4 Edward” had to include three important ingredients: A little bit of classical, a little bit of rock and a whole lot of joy.
Wilson was a guest on KLOS FM’s “New & Approved” virtual show hosted by Matt Pinfield. She appeared to talk about her debut solo album ‘You and Me’, which was released last Friday (May 7th) and includes the track “4 Edward”
“Most of [Eddie’s] stuff was in a very major sort of key. Not a lot of minor bluesy stuff that he wrote or played. He was always [playing] joyful, jubilant chord changes. Like think of ‘Jump’, that’s very jubilant sounding,” said Wilson. “So when I went to decide that I was gonna tribute him in an instrumental song I thought, ‘Well, OK, I know it has to be in a major key, it has to have joy in it, it has to have a little classical, a little rock to end it because he could do all that stuff.”
Wilson said she promised an Eddie tribute track before completing it, which put some added pressure on herself.
“I told people first that I was gonna do that and then I really regretted it because, ‘How am I supposed to do that?! What am I gonna do? Where do I even start, ya know, ‘cuz it’s a tall order to tribute Eddie Van Halen,” she said. “I realized I couldn’t do pulls and hammers on an acoustic so I just had to come up with the general shape of what I remembered his thing was. It took me weeks and weeks to figure it out and I was so nervous to even record it because I felt the pressure but I like how it turned out. It’s simple enough and it’s pretty and I think he’ll like it.”
You can watch Wilson’s entire interview above. The Eddie Van Halen portion begins at the 26:36 mark.
Main EVH photo credit: Neil Zlozower