Nuno Bettencourt got a chance to play in front of Eddie Van Halen but explained to Rick Beato that it was more of a disappointment than a moment of joy. He revealed:
“You don’t realize that until you actually got to play Eddie’s rig in front of Eddie like I did, and I thought I was finally going to sound like him. I was so bummed out because I’m like, I have his strings; I even have his sweat on the strings. I have his DNA; I got his amp. I just watched him rehearse, and he’s asking me to play his rig.
I’m going to after decades of a-b-ing VH1 and VH2 to my sound on Pornograffitti, I am finally going to sound like Edward, and I was so disappointed I sounded just like me; it was so horrible it was like a horrible nightmare.”
Nuno had fantasized about playing in front of Eddie for so long, and the moment had finally come as the guitarist recalled the story:
“When I watched Da Weasel when I was doing that record, he brought me in to meet him. […] I was like, there it is; there’s the tone. I fantasized about wishing everybody would just leave and let me play this rig. They take a break. Ed was like, ‘Come and play my rig,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, your wish just came true, but there’s only one problem, Edward is right there,’ and he goes, ‘I want to try down this new pedal man just play.’ So what do you play […]?”
Just as Nuno thought he had found something unique to Eddie pulled a prank on the guitarist; he added:
“I’m like, okay, I just got out of the studio. I was just doing Pornograffitti, I’m like, ‘Oh, I came up with this thing, I thought was decent […] I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m strength skipping with tapping; that’s different; let me try that second.’ I go to do that, and I start playing it; he stops and goes, ‘Hey hey hey none of that silly shit here,’ I’m like, ‘Oh okay,’ and then he laughed; he turned back and said I‘m just f*cking with you.”
Bettencourt shared the other disappointing moment when he declined Eddie’s offer to listen to a track he was working on called ‘Rise’ for his album ‘Six.’ The guitarist reflected on that moment during an interview with Metal Edge last month where he said:
“Edward asked me to go up and listen to what I was working on. Being the Virgo and the idiot I am, I was like, ‘Wait ’til it’s done. I’ll show you then.’ And Edward said, ‘Absolutely, I’ll come back then.’ But he sadly passed away not too long after that. So, I’m hoping that he’s smiling down on me. But ‘Rise’ is special because that’s the song I was cutting the last time I saw him.”
You can watch the entire interview below.
