Def Leppard News - DEF LEPPARD's PHIL COLLEN Pays Tribute To EDDIE VAN HALEN's Guitar And Backing Vocal Sound

Saturday, 10th October 2020

DEF LEPPARD's PHIL COLLEN Pays Tribute To EDDIE VAN HALEN's Guitar And Backing Vocal Sound

Eddie Van Halen R.I.P.

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen hosted his first SiriusXM radio show recently to pay tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen.

Phil hosted his own show recently on SiriuxXM's Van Halen Tribute channel.

He was one of a number of guest hosts on the tribute channel which was set up last week as a tribute to Eddie Van Halen who passed away on 6th October.

The show premiered on 15th October and is rebroadcast daily.

Phil played 12 Van Halen songs from both the David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar eras of the band.

He talked about each track and shared his memories of the band and the influence of their songs.

Listen to the full 48 minute show via the link below.

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Phil Collen On SiriusXM - 15th October 2020 Playlist

Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil
Van Halen - Eruption
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
Van Halen - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Van Halen - Jamie's Cryin'
Van Halen - Panama
Van Halen - Dance The Night Away
Van Halen - Unchained
Van Halen - Jump
Van Halen - Hot For Teacher
Van Halen - Why Can't This Be Love
Van Halen - Best Of Both Worlds

Phil Collen On SiriusXM - 15th October 2020 Transcript

Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil

"These are some of the songs I've chosen to play for you. I'm Phil Collen your guest DJ on SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel."

"Runnin' With The Devil. It was the first song I ever heard of Van Halen. My buddy Rudi who I'm still in contact with in London is a guitar played. Great guitar player, went Oh my god!. Check this out!. And obviously he played that and it was like Who is this?. It's this new band called Van Halen from the States."

"So that was the first introduction to it. That particular song."

Van Halen - Eruption/You Really Got Me

"I'm Phil Collen playing songs and sharing my Eddie Van Halen memories with you on SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel."

"Eruption. Again my buddy Rudi played me this, you know, he had the vinyl and it was in my front room. My Mum's front room in Walthamstow in East London. And he came round and we were freaking out about this thing and I said 'How's this...is that a guitar?. How's he doing that?'."

"He had all this stuff down, you know, he was showing me how to do it. He'd learnt it pretty swiftly. but it was, I'd never heard anyone do it. And it had taken the guitar to another stage. I've always said Jimi Hendrix invented the electric guitar. And there was no one that come close or even moved it a stage further. And Eddie actually did that."

Van Halen - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

"This is SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel. I'm Phil Collen of Def Leppard."

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love. Again this is, you know, it's from the first album. It's one of those things. You know people they would ban guitar players from playing Stairway To Heaven in Guitar Stores and stuff like that. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love was one of those licks, you know, everyone would be playing it. Like this A Minor thing. And doing it like Eddie. the muting thing. The palm muting thing. Just muting is where you place your palm on the strings. He kind of really brought that to the fore. There was other people doing it. there was some Jazz players doing that ."

"But the first time it was done really effectively in a rock context was again back to Eddie. It was like a new thing. It hadn't been done in that context before."

Van Halen - Jamie's Cryin'

"Welcome to SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel. I'm Phil Collen from Def Leppard."

"Next I've got Jamie's Cryin'. Again, you know, it's off the first album. The first album had such a profound impact on me and influence and everything. And that was just another one of my favourite songs from that particular album."

Van Halen - Panama

"I'm Phil Collen of Def Leppard and you're on SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel."

"Panama was great and it actually showed - Van Halen, you know as a band, as an artist you're always growing and kind of taking in different things. It had an AC/DC vibe to it. It had a kind of - it was obviously Van Halen but it actually had this kind of different influence coming in. And again, you know, kept all the great parts about Van Halen. You know the sound of the drums."

"The vocal sound of Michael Anthony and Eddie was very distinct. And very - was a big thing actually. It was part of the sound. And that doesn't get much credit, but the two of them. You know being in a band that uses backing vocals as an instrument I always appreciated when Eddie and Michael would sing these backing vocals. They had this particular sound. And it's like oh wow man it's Van Halen!."

Van Halen - Dance The Night Away

"These are some of the songs I've chosen to play for you. I'm Phil Collen your guest DJ on SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel."

"Dance The Night Away. Again a happy song. You know, it wasn't just all whammy bar and you know aggressive rock music. it was - it touched on that thing. That California summer night type thing. I know they had a song called Summer Nights as well. But Dance The Night Away it was like wow just a really cool riff and again it was expanding on something that was just so cool anyway."

Van Halen - Unchained

"I'm Phil Collen playing songs and sharing my Eddie Van Halen memories with you on SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel."

"Unchained. I love Unchained. it just had a rawness. And again, you know, this whole section in the middle. They were a great jamming band. Obviously they could just get down. They would play all these covers. They'd been playing for years. Just on and on and again when you play with the same people for many years something really magical happens."

Van Halen - Jump/Hot For Teacher

"This is SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel. I'm Phil Collen of Def Leppard."

"The next one I wanna get on to is Jump. Bit of a departure. Eddie showing off his keyboard skills. Every band or every artist wants to change. You wanna - you learn more and you bring more in and therefore you wanna put more out. And I think I was really really pleased. A lot of people were like Oh my god they're doing keyboards. But to me it just showed maturity, growth and it was a great song. It just made you happy. It had, the title's great. It's one of those songs you go man I wish I'd have written that."

"You know it was perfect. So their songwriting was getting better. It was becoming more tuned in. I'm not saying that... I mean I love, the first album's my favourite album. The songwriting became a lot better as it went on and that's what you do it's experience. It's maturity, it's all these things. And Jump really expressed that so when I first heard that it obviously blew me away."

"You know we were recording the Hysteria album. 1984 actually I know that's obviously the name of that album. And yeah that blew me away. As did, you know, Hot For Teacher. Again another crazy guitar thing that come out that people were like whoah what is that?. And was still thrilling people all the way through because of just this, this fire coming out of his fingers, you know, it was just incredible."

Van Halen - Why Can't This Be Love

"Welcome to SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel. I'm Phil Collen from Def Leppard."

"Now it's the Sammy period. So the first song I heard of the new Van Halen was Why Can't This Be Love. You know the first single. Again it had like a guitar synth. I've got a guitar synth from years ago from the 80s or 90s. And it kind of had sound. So I assume that's a guitar synth. It could be a keyboard I don't even know. But again it was just moving on."

"And again a band is a gang. So when someone dies or someone leaves or something like that it's never quite the same. So you have to accept the new sound. I actually totally did. Like I said I was a Sammy Hagar fan."

Van Halen - Best Of Both Worlds

"I'm Phil Collen of Def Leppard and you're on SiriusXM's Van Halen Tribute Channel."

"Another great track for me and again it really showcases Sammy's voice with Best Of Both Worlds. But I just love how restrained Eddie was. It actually sounded like s Strat playing there. But I'm sure it was, you know, a coil tap on of his guitars."

"He would always be messing around with guitars like cutting them up and, you know, changing the pickups and putting a coil tap in and doing all this crazy stuff. Which was very influential. It wasn't just his playing. It was the feel of a guitar. All of a sudden you went oh wow this feels different. A raw neck. It wasn't all processed and shiny and lovely and sparkly. It could be kind of dirty and go this pick up sounds wrong I'm gonna hack it out."

Def Leppard 2020.