Machine Head’s Robb Flynn shreds Eruption in tribute to Eddie Van Halen

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“This song is still so hard to play over 40 years later,” Flynn says

For the past 24 hours or so, the guitar world has been in mourning for Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on October 6 at the age of 65 after a long battle with cancer.

Now Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn has added his voice – and electric guitar – to the outpouring of tributes to the guitar legend with a down-tuned cover of EVH’s immortal Eruption. 

“I was just playing Eruption two days ago at the request of a fan, thinking, goddamn this song is still so fucking hard to play over 40 years later,” Flynn wrote on Facebook. “And that fucking guitar tone… Seriously… that fucking guitar tone even in this day and age is complete savagery.

“Dude was a ROCK STAR. Larger than life personality, so much style, so much class. They broke the mold with Eddie Van Halen. Rest in peace legend.”

Richard Bienstock
Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.