“He was born 10 years too late, because he’d be competing with Eddie Van Halen”: Justin Hawkins names the guitar virtuoso who could have been EVH’s equal in the 1980s

The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins has sung the praises of a contemporary electric guitar virtuoso who he feels, had he been born 10 years earlier, could have had the potential to be an equal to Eddie Van Halen.

Speaking to Rick Beato, Hawkins singled out Nuno Bettencourt for praise, saying the guitar hero was born a decade too late and missed out on competing with prime Van Halen in the 1980s.

“Rivalries are what got people excited about music. It seemed like the ’80s were this wonderfully tumultuous decade,” he says.

However, a Hawkin puts it, the extravagance of rock ’n’ roll killed itself off, meaning Bettencourt’s talents ultimately went under-appreciated in the early ’90s.

“No one is going to be able to sing higher than Jim Gillette, nobody’s going to play as fast or as ridiculous as Michael Angelo Batio, so [glam metal band] Nitro was the natural conclusion to that,” Hawkins attests. “Which meant the end for bands like [Bettencourt's] Extreme.”

Beato points out that Extreme did have commercial success, but it was their ballads that won over the public.

“I think he was born 10 years too late,” Hawkins sighs in reference to Bettencourt. “Because he'd be competing with Eddie Van Halen if he were a bit younger.”

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It’s a statement that seems especially poignant, especially considering the passion for, and connection to, Eddie Van Halen that Bettencourt has.

He's a man who penned a mega guitar solo with Extreme's first single in 15 years to keep Eddie's flame burning. The band have since added Van Halen classic Mean Street to their set lists. For those performances, Bettencourt's usually playing his wild Bumblebee Washburn, built as a tribute to one of his idol's most recognizable axes.

He'd been writing his Rise solo for years before its release, and revealed in 2023 that Eddie actually paid him a visit in the studio while he was tracking its finger-burning acrobatics. Bettencourt, though, wouldn't let him hear what he was working on, and the song wouldn't be released until several years after Eddie's 2020 passing.

“I never record with anybody in the room. I need to black out when I play,” Bettencourt explained. “[It was] stupid now in retrospect, not letting him come up and listen, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Bettencourt recently confirmed rumors that the mystery axe he debuted at Back to the Beginning wasn’t a Washburn, but was instead a model from his own guitar brand, Nuno Guitars.

The Hawkins brothers, meanwhile, made the news last month when they tore into Yungblud’s part in the Ozzy tribute performance at the MTV VMAs. Dan Hawkins had called it “nauseating” before Justin came to his defence amid the online fallout.