Awesome post and tribute to Eddie Van Halen. Thank you for posting it doughboy!
I loved that band. I played the drums and my drummer friends and I dreamed of being in a band like Van Halen.
I have a few stories about VH- When I was 11, the album 1984 came out and it was my first ever album purchase in the BMG club along with David Bowies Lets Dance and a few others. A few years prior to that, my mom absolutely ripped my older brother (who was around 17) at the time when she found his ticket stub in his ticket stub for a concert he went to without telling her. It was Van Halen's first tour and the cost was around $10....haha. She told him he'd never save any money bla bla bla hahaha.
Years later in 1998 or so when I was in college I dated a girl that worked at the World Theatre in Chicago. We were super lucky to get 2nd row seats and Eddie kept throwing guitar picks during the show while he was playing. He easily threw 50+ of them. 4-5 went off my hand but i wasn't able to catch any people would dive to the ground around me. It was a great show and amazing to be so close then turn around and see 60,000 people behind us. I enjoyed both versions of Van Halen. The energy in the show was electric and it was clear the band really loved what they were doing.