![\"Eddie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Eddie-Van-Halen-Van-Halen-Guitarist-1980s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Carl Lender<\/p>\n
Wed 22 July 2026 17:31, UK <\/p>\n
Working with any kind of frontman is always the biggest challenge in any rock and roll act. Classic rock<\/a> is full of countless tales that prove it.<\/p>\n It might be great to have someone who hogs the spotlight and takes the brunt of the hits while everyone else stays in the background, it\u2019s hard not to become resentful when the singer starts to feel like they own the group because they are the one singing everything. While there shouldn\u2019t really be that problem in a band that\u2019s named after the guitarist and drummer, Eddie Van Halen felt that he always wanted the chance to hear some other voices singing over his riffs.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s safe to say that Eddie lucked out when picking singers in his band half the time. Even though he got \u201cstuck\u201d with David Lee Roth in the early days because they were renting his sound system for gigs, having him out front gave them the greatest emcee a band could ask for, as well as a camera darling when they decided to transition to the world of MTV in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n Even when they started working on their next era with Sammy Hagar, \u2018The Red Rocker\u2019 was perfect for the group for completely different reasons. Roth\u2019s whole schtick had become stale, and having someone with a huge range who could still relate to everyone, like a member of the audience, was exactly what they needed when crafting their more adventurous material on records like 5150<\/a> and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.<\/p>\n But out of all the styles that Van Halen adopted during their lifetime, Eddie always came back to listening to the same hard rock bands he always did. He knew that no one had played guitar better than Eric Clapton did when he was in Cream, and when listening to the latter half of the British invasion<\/a>, he felt that no one could have matched the vocal power that he heard out of Joe Cocker.<\/p>\n Then again, Cocker was always going to be an acquired taste based on his performance style. His stage presence may have been a bit strange for someone who had never seen him before, but that eccentricity was half the reason why his songs worked, usually featuring him doing some strange interpretive dance to go along with whatever they song needed at any point. <\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n