Brian May shared a video on his official Youtube channel to talk about where he first saw Eddie Van Halen play. The Queen guitarist even compared Eddie’s playing to the likes of Jimi Hendrix; where he said:
“Eddie Van Halen was a phenomenon, I guess, that hardly needs saying. I met him for the first time through Tony Iommi, my great friend from Black Sabbath. When I was watching the two of them, Van Halen was opening up for Black Sabbath. I mean, that was something to see. It was in the Circus Krone in Munich, and I hadn’t seen Tony for a while, and I had never seen Van Halen. Luckily, I got there in time to see him play, and I was just like, ‘Wow, what is this? What is this guy? What is he doing? I can’t begin to figure out what he is doing with his fingers.’ It was a bit like seeing Jimi Hendrix for the first time.”
After the show in Munich, the trio connected instantly, and it was clear that their admiration for each other was mutual. Brian continued:
“How does anyone do that? What is he got that is so magical that we’ve never seen before? Edward was incredible that night, and we all got together, Tony and I, and I guess there was an instant bond because Ed had told us both that he’d been massively influenced by us, which was great, so we had lots to talk about, and yes, we became friends.”
The admiration soon turned into friendship, eventually leading Brian and Eddie to work together on a mini-album called ‘Star Fleet Project’ during Queen’s hiatus in the early 1980s. May recently announced that ‘Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Sessions’ will be released worldwide as a Deluxe Edition box set in July. The guitarist also released a special stand-alone digital single, ‘Star Fleet (Edited Single Version),’ which you can listen to below.
You can also watch Brian May’s video on his official Youtube channel below.
