Ted Nugent named late Van Halen icon Eddie Van Halen the best guitar player of all time during the recent episode of The Nightly Nuge. Uncle Ted praised the late guitarist by saying he had a very diverse style and an incredible sense of rhythm.
Unfortunately, the legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6, 2020, following his long battle with cancer. His official cause of death was announced as a stroke, but he also had several other underlying health issues. Following his passing, many musicians shared touching tributes to the guitarist to express their deep sadness.
Eddie Van Halen changed how rock and metal music sounded with his unique tapping technique and incredible sense of rhythm. He defined the sound of his era and impressed a whole generation of young guitarists. His great approach and the spirit he brought to his guitar playing made him one of the best guitar players of all time.
Thus, it is not surprising that Ted Nugent also immediately named Eddie Van Halen when asked about the greatest guitarists. The rocker praised his diverse style, athletic performances on the gigs, and his ‘uncanny superman sense of rhythm.’ For Nugent, the late guitarist had unbelievable control over the instrument, but his sense of rhythm was the thing that marked his distinctive guitar playing style.
When asked about the best guitarist of all time, Ted Nugent replied:
“There are so many. I’m going to go ahead and give it to Eddie Van Halen because he was so diverse, not only in his histrionics, but he had an unbelievable organic sense of rhythm in his delivery of not just exciting lead guitar parts but his grind of a grooving rhythm as a white kid.
He really defied the history of who can groove like that because I come from the world of the Funk Brothers of Motown, so I know what the Gods of groove sound like. In Eddie Van Halen, the times I jammed with him and listened to their records, you can tell he had an unbelievable, uncanny superman sense of rhythm beyond just his outrageous athleticism on the guitar.”
His fans gathered under the video on Facebook, and most of them agreed with Nugent on his choice of Eddie Van Halen as the best guitarist of all time. Some others put other names such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Slash, and Mark Knopfler on the table.
