During an appearance on ‘Talk is Jericho,’ Judas Priest’s lead vocalist Rob Halford revealed his reaction to hearing the recently deceased Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen for the very first time, and apparently, Van Halen’s performance blew him away.

As you may remember, his son Wolfgang Van Halen announced that his father and one of the most influential guitarists, Eddie Van Halen, passed away with a statement he posted on social media platforms over a month ago.

The guitar legend Eddie Van Halen sadly passed away after battling with cancer for a long time. In fact, he beat tongue cancer back in 2002 after two years of treatment. However, it turned out that last year, Van Halen’s cancer was back and he was going through another treatment.

Since Eddie’s death was heartbreaking for his fans, family, friends, and everyone from the music industry, during the recent interviews, most of the musicians are asked about his passing and the legacy he left for the rock and metal music community.

During a recent interview, Rob Halford was also asked to share opinions on Eddie Van Halen and he opened up about Van Halen’s death while recalling the very first time listening to his music. Rob stated that it was unlike anything he heard before and it blew him away. He also revealed that he listened to the cassette two or three times in a row since he was fascinated by Eddie’s playing.

Here is what Halford said:

“I remember vividly when Dave Corke, who was one of the early managers of Judas Priest, came to my house. And he said, ‘Come to my car, I’ve just got this cassette from this band that everybody’s raving about called Van Halen – you got to listen to this guitarist, he’s just unbelievable.’

So we sat in his car, it was practically in the middle of the night, and he put the cassette in and Eddie fired up and the band fired up, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, what is this?! I’ve never heard anything like it in my life’ – just blew me away.”

He continued:

“I think we played the cassette two or three times because we were so mesmerized by Eddie’s playing and what that very first Van Halen record was all about, so that was a thrill.”

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