In an interview with The Metal Voice, UFO guitarist Michael Schenker talked about the time when his brother and Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker told him that late guitarist Eddie Van Halen was influenced by him and revealed his personal opinions on Eddie’s music.

As many of you might already know, Eddie Van Halen was widely known for his ferocious tapping technique throughout his career. While the two-handed tapping technique has been used by various musicians, it was Van Halen who popularized it in the late ’70s.

As a matter of fact, Eddie Van Halen once revealed that he drew his inspiration for the special and iconic technique from Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page when he performed the solo for Led Zeppelin song ‘Heartbreaker’ in 1971 which was a track from the 1969 album, ‘Led Zeppelin II.’

Here is what Eddie Van Halen previously stated:

“I think I got the idea of tapping watching Page do his ‘Heartbreaker’ solo back in 1971… He was doing a pull-off to an open string and I thought… I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around?”

During a recent interview, Michael Schenker revealed that his brother Rudolf Schenker once told him that one of Eddie Van Halen’s earlier works was a bit inspired by him. While Schenker sounded proud of this fact, he also stated that Eddie took it higher in every aspect while praising his unique rhythm and style. He mentioned that he was blown away by Eddie’s sense of rhythm and sound as well as his tone quality.

Here’s what Michael Schenker stated about the first time he heard Eddie Van Halen:

“The weirdest thing is actually Van Halen was supporting UFO at the Starwood, I was 19 years old and it was 5 years before Van Halen broke out with Van Halen One.

When I heard Eddie I was like, ‘Wow! This is amazing.’ But I didn’t know that he was actually doing the tapping technique. I was wondering how on earth does he get such a smooth guitar sound. Everyone copied him doing the tapping style later on. It was something easy for guitarists to do for overnight success.

So there were thousands of guitarists going to guitar school learning tapping to be a star in one or two years. But the thing with Eddie Van Halen was he had rhythm and style.”

Schenker continued:

“My brother Rudolf told me that he actually heard something Eddie did earlier on that sounded like Eddie was a bit influenced by me. But Eddie took it so far forward that I was blown away by what he did.

His sense of rhythm, his sense of melody, his sense of sound, and tone quality. The way he actually entertained was so complete, he was the best.”

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