“He goes, ‘You’re not going to believe it. Eddie Van Halen is at our friend’s house. I was hanging out with him!’ I was like, ‘I have to go over there’”: Michael Lemmo on the surreal time he met Eddie Van Halen – who was dating his friend’s mom
Michael Lemmo has recalled the time he crossed paths with Eddie Van Halen – because the late electric guitar god was dating his friend’s mom.
In a recent episode of Premier Guitar’s Rig Rundown, the Norms' Rare Guitar regular reflected on the time when a new kid in town – and his mom – proved to be the key behind meeting one of his biggest heroes.
As Lemmo notes, he was only a 14-year-old when he met Eddie Van Halen, who had begun dating one of his friend’s mothers. It was at a time when rap was on the rise, and Lemmo’s burgeoning guitar talents were starting to appear (at least to himself) obsolete.
“When I was a kid, I used to cry about Eddie Van Halen, because this was when rap was mega,” he begins. “All my friends were like, ‘Van Halen is not cool.’ I was like, ‘I have a useless gift; no-one wants to hear this stuff.’”
However, Lemmo’s obsession with the guitar and Van Halen was soon to be vindicated, when he got the chance to meet his hero following a rather surreal phone call he received from a close friend.
“I was obsessed,” Lemmo continues. “Sure enough, after all that yearning, he was on tour – this was 2004 with Sammy Hagar – and he was dating my friend’s mom. It was my good friend Ryan Crosley, and he was new to the town. He'd just moved in.
“His mother hit it off with Eddie, and I went to the house. My friend Terry goes, ‘You’re not going to believe it. Eddie Van Halen is at our friend Ryan’s house. I was just over there hanging out with him!’ I was like, ‘Dude, you know I have to go over there.’”
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Not long after, Lemmo was able to hang out with his hero, and he came well-prepared for what he described as “the highlight of my life”.
“I went over there, hung out with him for two hours, and he was so cool,” he says of the meeting. “He was just such a kind guy. Obviously going through a lot at that time but still took the time to spend with me and talk about guitars.
“I brought a Wolfgang and a Kramer. I went in, and he knew it. Right away, he knew it, and he just loved it. It was a special moment, and it’s funny because that was all the way back in Pennsylvania, and I’ve been in LA while he was still around and I never ran into him again.
“It was a crazy moment. I was a freshman – I was about 14 years old – so it was just out of this world. Definitely one of the highlights of my life.”
Lemmo left the meeting with a guitar pick that was gifted to him by Van Halen. It has since served as a reminder of the chance encounter, and has been stuck to the headstock of the virtuoso’s number one Fender ‘Godzilla’ Jazzmaster.
That Jazzmaster can be seen in action in the video above, which sees Lemmo perform one of his own tracks at Guitar World HQ.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
