Jimmy Page on Eddie Van Halen: ‘He Was the Real Deal’
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page remembered his fellow guitar god Eddie Van Halen following Van Halen’s death Tuesday at the age of 65.
“It is with great sadness that I heard the passing of Eddie Van Halen,” Page wrote on Instagram. “He was the real deal: he pioneered a dazzling technique on guitar with taste and panache that I felt always placed him above his imitators.”
Page added he was happy to see Eddie Van Halen’s iconic Frankenstein guitar at the “Play It Loud” exhibition, where the guitar resided alongside other famed instruments like Page’s Harmony Sovereign acoustic guitar that was used on portions of “Stairway to Heaven.”
Following the death of Van Halen after a lengthy battle with cancer, there has been an outpouring of tributes from fellow guitar greats, including Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, John Mayer, Joe Satriani, and Tom Morello.