Today is an incredibly sad day for me. Growing up, I've always loved rock and metal music, and the main reason for that was the man who was my musical idol from the first time I heard him play "Eruption": Eddie Van Halen.
As my wife will tell you, we've literally spent entire evenings passionately debating which version of Van Halen (the David Lee Roth era or the Sammy Hagar era) was better, but regardless of which I loved more (Hagar, thank you very much), Van Halen was, is, and always will be a huge part of my life.
Today, it was announced that Eddie Van Halen passed away after a long battle with throat cancer. And for the first time in my life, the death of someone I've never met brought me to tears.
Tonight, I'm going to gather a few of Full Moon Entertainment's most talented musicians at Ryze, to jam on some of my favorite Van Halen songs and pay tribute to a fallen rock god.