Mark Tremonti has recalled how Eddie Van Halen took him under his wing – and gifted him an electric guitar – during his early Creed days, which gave the young musician a huge boost as he navigated the first years of his career.
Creed supported Van Halen for two shows in 1998, with Tremonti and co supporting the release of Van Halen III. Eddie liked what he saw and singled out the guitarist, who was in his early 20s at the time, for praise.
“I remember Eddie going, ‘Hey, who’s the guitar player?’ and I raised my hand,” Tremonti reminisces in the new issue of Classic Rock.
“He’s like, ‘Come here,’ and he showed me his whole guitar rig and how everything worked. He’s like, ‘What color do you like?’ I said: ‘Black.’ The next day, he brings me a black guitar, the Wolfgang guitar. It’s one of my prized possessions.”
Eddie’s support didn’t end there, though. Speaking to Guitar World in 2021, Tremonti recalled how Van Halen then later singled him out from a crowd in order to pass on some extra words of wisdom concerning the guitar he'd just given away.
“When the show was over, we were backstage underground and there was 300 crew, guests, press everywhere, just swarming the place,” he explained at the time. “We saw Wolf, his mom and Eddie walking out.
“Eddie saw me out of the corner of his eye and walked through hundreds of people to come over and say, ‘Hey I forgot to tell you – you need to take out two springs to make it play right – sorry I forgot to tell you that earlier!’”
If a guitar and sage gear advice from one of the world’s greatest players hadn't already given Tremonti superior bragging power, Eddie’s final parting gift did.
“He gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked right through all the people clamoring for him again,” Tremonti continued. “He did that for me?! He had his kid and his wife with him and knew he’d get caught up by everybody, but he took his time out because he gave a shit about his products and passing on knowledge.”
Eddie was a famous supporter of other talents. Mötley Crüe's latest recruit, John 5, recently recalled playing through Eddie's rig after being invited to the band’s rehearsals. He also helped shape Def Leppard's Hysteria with a single piece of advice.
Elsewhere in his Classic Rock interview, Tremonti discussed another peak moment in his life and career, reflecting on the moment he felt he’d officially made it.
“When we started playing arenas it was like: ‘Alright, this is what I’ve dreamt about my whole life,’” he says. “I remember specifically being in an arena and opening up a guitar case that had my signature guitar, my PRS Tremonti model, like, ‘I can’t believe I have a guitar with my name on it with the best guitar company in the world.’
“We were just college kids from Tallahassee, Florida. We put all our money together from college to buy gear to go on tour and start from the bottom.
“We were a college band that got signed to a brand-new label, and none of us knew what we were doing. We got lucky to be surrounded with a bunch of hard-working people that wanted to make this thing happen.”
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