Hard Rock music would not have been the same without Eddie Van Halen, who inspired a whole generation of guitarists with his incredible technique and style. Many musicians copied him and did not add much more to that kind of music, but some took the inspiration and did something different that truly pushed the genre forward. Van Halen was not happy with the number of people who copied him, but he liked a few guitarists who achieved fame in the 1980s. 3 guitarists Eddie Van Halen said he liked in the 80s Steve Vai https://youtu.be/b0ejHWfv3eM?si=p1eL4xHcshd4I0WV&t=11 The first one mentioned by Eddie was Steve Vai, who he said had no “beef” with him, even though he was David Lee Roth’s guitarist and was, of course, playing many songs originally written by Eddie. He brought up the musician after praising bassist Billy Sheehan (who also was part of Roth’s band). "Billy Sheehan. He's good. I've known him for years. His band Talas toured with us. Steve Vai is good, too. I've got no beef with him [laughs]. He's a great guitarist," he told Guitar Player magazine in 1987. Interestingly, Eddie and Steve met each other long before Roth went solo. The legendary guitarist lived close to Frank Zappa and they became good friends, so he used to visit him frequently. It was in one of those visits that he had the chance to play with Steve Vai, since at the time the American musician was part of Zappa's band. Although he had to reproduce Eddie’s style as best he could while he was in Diamond Dave’s band, Steve Vai and Van Halen always respected each other. In 1995, Eddie even joked that when he first heard Vai playing his songs, he thought he was playing them better than he was himself. Eddie Van Halen said: “I’m going: ‘this guy is better at what I do than I am’, you know. But (whispering) he lacked the vibe… the feel. He was technically very proficient, but stiff. It always made me feel bad in a way. Because it made me feel like, ‘Wow, is that how people perceive me’. Cause, to me, listening to him it didn’t sound like me, but he took my chops, so to speak. And made them very robotic and did them twice as fast,” he told Shaun Baxter. After Vai decided to leave Roth's band, Eddie gave him a call and that was the start of their friendship after that era. “The day after I left David Lee Roth’s band – I don’t know how Edward found out – but he called me. That was the start of a nice relationship and friendship. For about six months, we actually hung out a lot together, and I got to know the guy. I saw his studio." "He played me all these tapes and was constantly writing and playing. He played me stuff that was never released. But it was so Edward. I said, ‘Why don’t you make a solo record?’ And he always felt that the Van Halen records were his solo records. But this stuff he was playing me was really quite nice. It was all the things we loved about the way he played,” he told Rolling Stone in 2020. Steve Vai was part of Roth’s band from 1985 to 1989. During that period he recorded the albums “Eat ‘Em and Smile” (1986) and “Skyscraper” (1988). Besides starting a really successful and praised solo career, he was also a member of Whitesnake for a while and collaborated with several other artists over the years. Keith Scott (Bryan Adams band) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxbBmue9lHc The second guitarist mentioned by Eddie Van Halen was Keith Scott, who has been Bryan Adams’ guitarist since 1981, when the Canadian musician put his band together. Eddie brought him up after being asked by Guitar Player magazine if he had ever heard Yngwie Malmsteen. "I heard maybe a little piece of a song on the radio once when we were driving in Sammy's car. The dude's fast, boy; I know that," he said. Hagar chimed in, saying: "Yeah. Eddie's comment was, "The guy's playing some stuff, man!" Then the interviewer questioned Van Halen about Steve Morse and Eric Johnson, but he ended up mentioning Keith Scott. "No (never heard them). What do they sound like? I like the guy with Bryan Adams (Keith Scott). He's real melodic," Eddie Van Halen said. Keith Scott was honored to read Eddie’s compliments. He had the chance to meet the legendary musician when Eddie attended Bryan Adams’ shows. "Maybe he got me mixed up with somebody else. No, I remember that he had said things. But he would come out (to the shows) and he was a fan. He loved Bryan, he loved his voice. And he was always so, so great. He's just a normal guy. He was just really cool." He continued: "And I did hear about the comment in a publication that he said something about me. You know, I just thanked him for that, I think, at the time, which is the late '80s. But he's just a really nice guy. Obviously, we were a little intimidated because of his role in electric guitar in the last 40 years," Keith Scott said in an interview with Jeremy White and Mitch Lafon in 2022. The first Bryan Adams album he was part of was the hugely successful "Cuts Like a Knife", released in 1983. He went on to play on all of the Canadian artist’s best-selling albums and has remained a member of his band ever since. Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQTQbxn5la8&pp=ygUXU3RldmUgU3RldmVucyB2YW4gaGFsZW4%3D “Steve Stevens is good,” Eddie Van Halen said when talking about other artists he liked during the interview. The guitarist, best known for his work with Billy Idol and for co-writing the Top Gun theme in the 1980s, first met Eddie in 1987. He went to Van Halen’s house, where the 5150 studio was located, so they could rehearse for the show they would perform together at that year’s NAMM Jam. "To this day I don't know why Ed invited me. Maybe Ted (Templeman - producer) threw my hat in there or something. Also the fact was that nothing that I played on Billy Idol records... I wasn't trying to be Eddie Van Halen, I was on the other side of the United States. I had a lot of different influences and I would imagine all the other guitar players in Los Angeles were probably copying him. Maybe he saw (me as a) guy who didn't sound like him. So he thought 'Oh yeah, that would be cool,'" Steve Stevens said in an interview with Final Resonance TV in 2024 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Curiously, Stevens was one of the guitarists David Lee Roth approached after leaving Van Halen, to work with him on his debut solo album "Eat 'Em and Smile". Stevens and Eddie had the chance to hang out again in 1993, when he was the lead guitarist for Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil, who was opening for Van Halen at the time. More recently, in 2025, the musician joined Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Kenny Aronoff on stage to perform Van Halen’s 1991 song “Poundcake.”The post 3 guitarists Eddie Van Halen said he liked in the 80s appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.