Sophia Michaels
Eddie Van Halen received a moving tribute from Red Hot Chili Peppers as the band performed their tribute single “Eddie” live for the first time at Austin City Limits. The 6-minute-long performance arrived halfway through their headlining set and enraptured the audience by the end, in part to John Frusciante’s intense guitar solo.
“Sometimes we don’t realize how deeply affected and connected we are to artists until the day they die,” Kiedis said in a statement. “Eddie Van Halen was a one of a kind. The day after his death Flea came into rehearsal with an emotional bass line. John, Chad, and I started playing along and pretty soon with all our hearts, a song in his honor effortlessly unfolded. It felt good to be sad and care so much about a person who had given so much to our lives.”
He added: “Although the song doesn’t speak to Eddie by name, it talks about his early days on the Sunset Strip and the rock ‘n’ roll tapestry that Van Halen painted on our minds. In the end, our song asks that you not remember Eddie for dying but for living his wildest dream.”
Van Halen died in October 2020 at 65 after a long battle with cancer. The legendary guitar innovator and virtuoso led Van Halen through five decades and three lead singers, establishing himself as one of the all-time great players in rock history.
“Eddie” will appear on Red Hot Chili Pepper’s upcoming double LP, Return of the Dream Canteen, set for release on Oct. 14, featuring the recent single “Tippa My Tongue.” The album marks their second in the past year, both of which were recorded with Frusciante, who resurfaced with the band on Return of the Dream for the first time since 2006.
“We went in search of ourselves as the band that we have somehow always been. Just for the fun of it we jammed and learned some old songs,” the band said of Return of the Dream Canteen in a statement. “Before long we started the mysterious process of building new songs.” They added: “Once we found that slip stream of sound and vision, we just kept mining. With time turned into an elastic waist band of oversized underwear, we had no reason to stop writing and rocking. It felt like a dream.”
