I liked Eddie, thought he was a very good guitar player.
But changed music? Jeff Beck and Ritchie Blackmore were doing this stuff in the 1960s, and Hendrix broadened it. I never found one thing VH did that was novel. Excellent guitar playing, but following others and standing on the shoulders of giants.
Not a knock, just reality.
Sorry but you’re wrong. Many guitar greats recognize he was highly innovative. Adrian Belew, who at the time was working for Zappa and would go on to play for Bowie, and join King Crimson, recognized it right off when he wandered in to see EVH at the Whiskey. He was smooth, he was fast, he was trying new things, he had a deep understanding of the technology and how to manipulate it. He very much changed the world of rock guitar. He moved the posts. Heck even Ritchie Blackmore knows that:
Eddie Van Halen was a brilliant guitarist who started a technique of guitar playing which was emulated by a whole generation of guitarists. He was one of the nicest musicians I ever met in the music business. Very shy and not at all conceited about his ability as a guitar player. Frank Zappa said he reinvented the guitar. I agree. He will be sadly missed but his brilliant legacy will always be remembered. The ultimate guitar hero.
So if Ritchie says EVH was doing stuff he never thought of, maybe you should recognize.
Even before the David Lee Roth departure and Sammy Hagar arrival, the keyboard influence on the album '1984' was foreboding. Eddie Van Halen wasn't limited by his guitar playing but by the singing and songwriting.
>> I never found one thing VH did that was novel.
Finger tapping?
EVH absolutely changed music. Maybe only hard rock music but he definitely reinvented it. Every actual electric guitarist of the day either tried to imitate him out of admiration, or chastise him because it was over their head or playing ability. But there was no denying he was on everyone’s mind.
The rock music landscape completely changed. Almost overnight, the biggest guitar-focused arena-packing rock bands of the time either disappeared, or changed completely away from a guitar oriented sound. Zeppelin and Skynyd, lost members and never reformed. Boston, disappeared. Queen and Journey, went pop. Nugent, vanished. Kiss, bonkers. Etc, etc, etc.
VH was a new era in rock. Maybe you just have to know the genre well to appreciate it.