“I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive”: Nuno Bettencourt once vowed to keep Eddie Van Halen’s guitar fire burning – now he’s using his custom Washburn ‘Bumblebee’ to cover Van Halen with Extreme

Extreme - Mean Street - MTelus Montreal 09/28/2024 - YouTube

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Nuno Bettencourt has been using his custom-made ‘Bumblebee’-inspired Washburn N4 to cover Van Halen classics while on the road with Extreme.

Bettencourt donned the black-and-yellow-striped six-string during a show at MTELUS, Montreal, late last month to rip through Mean Street. The instrument was made as a tribute to the late great, offering a fresh take on the virtuoso's famed Bumblebee.

His playing, as you'd expect, is glittered with purring pinch harmonics and a high-gain tone still full of nuance. Despite Bettencourt's impressive Van Halen impression, much of his dazzling signature playing style remains. You can watch the performance, which was recently shared online, above.

Mean Street isn't the only Van Halen track that Bettencourt has tackled on tour, though. Prior to the Montreal show, Extreme had also performed Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love – for which Bettencourt had swapped back to his tried-and-trusted original N4.

It's a neat full-circle moment for Bettencourt. When Extreme made their incendiary comeback last year with the release of Rise, the electric guitar virtuoso made a vow: to keep Eddie Van Halen's guitar fire burning.

“When Eddie Van Halen passed, it really hit me,” he noted at the time. “I’m not going to be the one who will take the throne, but I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive. So, you hear a lot of fire on the record.”

Extreme - Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love (Van Halen) Live cover in Madrid Front Row View - YouTube

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Interestingly, while Rise came three years after Eddie’s passing, its solo was a work in progress while he was still alive. Van Halen himself even swung by the studio while the song was being tracked – but Nuno didn’t let him hear the solo.

“I never record with anybody in the room. I need to black out when I play,” Bettencourt told Total Guitar. “During recording the Rise solo, my phone is blowing up, and it’s pissing me off because Gary [Cherone, vocalist] knows not to bother me while I’m recording guitars.

“He keeps calling me then he’s texting me, ‘Come downstairs, I’m in the front.’ After the third time I’m like, ‘I’m gonna punch this dude out! Something must be going on.’ I go down, open the door and it’s Edward Van Halen.”

The solo would later become a tribute to Eddie and has earned him praise from the likes of Steve Lukather, Steve Vai, and Brian May – but the band’s mean version of Mean Street sees him fanning Eddie’s fame in a far more literal sense.