Celebrating a Guitar Legend: The Meaning Behind “Eddie” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

In 2022, Red Hot Chili Peppers released back-to-back albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen.

The Rick Rubin-produced sessions also saw the return of guitarist John Frusciante, following his decade-long absence from the band. “Eddie” is a highlight from Return of the Dream Canteen, written in celebration of a guitar legend.

Eruption

Eddie Van Halen inspired “Eddie” and singer Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyrics following Van Halen’s death in 2020. He notes Van Halen’s early life in Amsterdam and the band’s nascent years in the 1970s Los Angeles music scene.

Sailing the Sunset Strip, I’m a bit of a king
Granny would take a trip, I’ve been bending the strings
Got hammers in both my hands, such a delicate touch
They say I’m from Amsterdam, does that make me Dutch?

The chorus lyric pleads to remember Van Halen’s work while he lived, not to lament his death. It also name-checks David Lee Roth and a Gibson Flying V. Van Halen’s Frankenstein is the guitar most fans remember him playing. However, he also played a Flying V that he purchased from collector Dan Martin in St. Louis.

Van Halen used the Flying V to record “Hot for Teacher,” “Drop Dead Legs,” “Girl Gone Bad,” and “Top of the World.” He also appeared with it on the cover of Guitar World in 1984.

Please don’t remember me for what I did with David
You know I’m talkin’ David Lee
Am I ready?
Please don’t remember me, for what I did last night, oh
I guess I played a Flying V

1984

Kiedis explained the song’s origin on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Instagram page. He writes, “Sometimes we don’t realize how deeply affected and connected we are to artists until the day they die.”

Guitarist John Frusciante pays homage to Van Halen with a screaming solo that echoes the early Van Halen recordings. However, the guitar solo almost didn’t happen.

Frusciante told Guitar Player, “I was even thinking of cutting the solo entirely because I did not know how to go about it. I was either going too far in the Eddie Van Halen direction, to where it was too busy and there was too much two-handed tapping and it didn’t sound like me, [or] it only sounded like me … in a song about Eddie Van Halen.”

Meanwhile, Kiedis lists pieces of Van Halen’s life. Drummer Alex Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli receive nods in the line: My brother’s keeper, I married a TV wife. (Bertinelli starred in the sitcom One Day at a Time.) Their son Wolfgang is continuing the family business with his rock band Mammoth WVH. The name is taken from a band name his father used during Van Halen’s early years.

Can I Borrow a Pedal?

Frusciante once borrowed a guitar pedal from Van Halen.

One of Frusciante’s signature sounds comes from a 1980s Ibanez wah pedal. It’s an inexpensive effect made of plastic and easily breakable. After breaking his last one during a show in Moscow, Frusciante’s guitar tech, Dave Lee, began hunting for another.

Van Halen’s guitar tech Matt Bruck said he had one at Van Halen’s Studio City, California, home. Lee arrived to pick up the pedal and found Van Halen standing in the driveway, holding it. He asked Lee, “Why would he use a piece of s–t like this?”

Californication

Red Hot Chili Peppers follow Van Halen in a long tradition of California-centric rock bands. Though Frusciante’s playing is primarily shaped by Jimi Hendrix and punk rock, he, like most aspiring rock guitarists coming of age in the 1980s, couldn’t escape Eddie Van Halen’s influence.

Occasionally, Frusciante echoes Van Halen with the same two-hand tapping technique made famous on “Eruption.” (An example is heard in “Don’t Forget Me” from the album By the Way.)

“Eddie” is a touching tribute to the guitar legend, performed by a kid, now grown, that Van Halen unknowingly touched with his iconic playing.

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Photo by Adam Bettcher Photography/Shutterstock