Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt recently shared details about meeting Eddie Van Halen in 1991. He explained what happened after the legendary guitarist kissed him on the lips, in an interview with SiriusXM.
Bettencourt recounted the unexpected encounter and his initial reaction to Van Halen’s greeting style.
“I was staying in town to produce a Dweezil Zappa album called Confessions, and on the way to the studio one day he said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to make a quick stop.’ It was at CenterStaging (where Van Halen was rehearsing),” Bettencourt said. “I was like, ‘Uh-oh, he’s gonna kick me out.’ And he came over and — other than Elton John — he’s the only guitarist or musician who’s ever kissed me on the lips.”
The guitarist explained his disappointment upon learning this wasn’t a unique gesture.
“I thought I was special, but then I read that he did that to Kurt Cobain as well, and he did it to so-and-so, so he was a bit of a slut. He kissed everybody on the lips ‘hello,'” he continued.
Bettencourt also described the nerve-wracking experience of playing Van Halen’s equipment during their meeting.
“I was fantasizing, ‘Can you imagine everybody leaving the room and me just playing his rig, the guitar, finally sounding like Eddie Van Halen?’ First thing he does when they take a break: ‘Come and play my rig!’ And I was like, ‘Uh-oh, did he just hear me? Did I just say that out loud?’ And he’s like, ‘No, no, just play, man. I want to try this pedal out,'” Bettencourt recalled.
The encounter took an amusing turn when Bettencourt attempted to showcase his skills.
“He’s kneeling down in front of me, facing the other way, and he’s trying some pedal out. The first thing that goes through my head is something you never think about as a kid: What’s the first thing you play in front of Eddie Van Halen? I was panicking. And he turns around and says, ‘You gonna play?'” he said. “I was just like, ‘I’m just gonna play something. I’m not gonna improvise and go down in flames in front of Eddie Van Halen!’ And when I got to the part where I started doing the tapping, he turns around and stops me. I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ And he goes, ‘None of that silly stuff here!'”
This memorable encounter reveals the mutual respect between two guitar virtuosos. It provides insight into Eddie Van Halen’s personality and his interactions with fellow musicians.
Van Halen News Desk reported that Eddie Van Halen admired Nuno Bettencourt’s playing enough to regularly perform riffs from Extreme’s “He-Man Woman Hater” during Van Halen soundchecks. Their mutual guitar tech shared this detail and Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger later recounted it. This demonstrates that Van Halen’s respect for Bettencourt’s talent extended well beyond their initial meeting.
The circumstances of their 1991 encounter were particularly serendipitous. Van Halen News Desk noted that the meeting occurred at Van Halen’s studio during rehearsals while Bettencourt was en route to work on Dweezil Zappa’s Confessions album. Dweezil had stopped briefly to grab a guitar, leading Bettencourt inside unexpectedly. This set the stage for this legendary guitar encounter.
Van Halen’s playful interruption of Bettencourt’s tapping demonstration carried deeper meaning than initially apparent. Loudwire revealed that Van Halen was playfully “busting chops” on Bettencourt by stopping his tapping during the pedal demo and jokingly calling it “none of that silly stuff.” This highlighted Van Halen’s awareness of Bettencourt’s recent Guitar World interview where he had admitted feeling “silly” about tapping because it was so closely associated with Eddie’s signature technique.
The story illustrates Van Halen’s reputation for being both generous with fellow musicians and possessing a sharp sense of humor. His willingness to immediately invite Bettencourt to play his equipment, combined with his playful ribbing about the tapping technique, showcased the guitar legend’s complex personality. It also demonstrated his ability to put other musicians at ease while maintaining his legendary status in the rock world.
