Unfortunately not - Rocco Prestia of Tower of Power died just last week. https://www.guitarworld.com/news/legendary-tower-of-power-bassist-rocco-prestia-dies-aged-69
This is rough. I really liked Eddie and and David L R together. When Paul and Ringo pass I’ll probably going to a bad place. This sucks
OMG! RIP Eddie! I used to hate hearing Van Halen on the radio in high school. They were on regular heavy rotation on Rock 101 KLOL, even in the late 90's, and I never understood why. Now with all the crap on the radio, I totally respect when I hear them My favorite Eddie Van Halen riffs
There had been rumors going around for months that he wasn't doing well, but no one knew for sure because they are so secretive to whats going on.
If you have MTV Classic, looks like they're playing nothing but Van Halen videos the rest of the night.
Isn't it strange that the death of someone you have never even met can affect you so personally? Second time it's happened this year to me, the first being Neil Peart. I feel like I DID know both of these guys personally because of all the time I spent getting into the music they created when I was younger. I guess that's the power of music. It has that affect on people more so than any other art form, IMO.
Van Halen and the "1984" tour was the only concert I ever truly camped out for. A friend and I drove up to Almeda Mall the night before tickets went on sale. They wouldn't let you park in the Mall parking lot. So, if anyone familiar with Almeda Mall back in the day, there were two movie theaters pretty much adjacent to each other just off the Mall lot. We ended up parking in one of them in the early AM. We happened to be mischievous young kids up to no good at the time...so we brought our cache of party supplies to entertain us and pass the time. Suffice to say, we did not last the night as intended. We both ended up passing out in the van. By the time one of us awoke and took a look out the window, the damn line from the doors where the ticket location was located was already backed up with what must have been at least 50 people. So, we went from being first on-site the early AM before to passing out and ending up way back. Boy, we're we pissed. Then, as tickets finally went on sale, we had to endure the first motherf*ckers in line coming out holding up front row tickets. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN US! We were devastated. As more and more people came out and we got indications of where their seats were, we realized we were f*cked! We didn't even think we were going to get tickets and, at this point, there was only one show date and tickets were almost all sold out. So, then they came out and declared a second show date has been announced. We were ecstatic but still weren't anywhere near the front of the line at that point. Tickets were just selling like crazy at many locations across Houston. So, we had to endure yet another band of as*holes come out of the ticket location doors announcing they had front row seats...all by sheer random dumb luck! When we finally did get to the front of the line, we ended up getting upper promenade on the side. These weren't the worst tickets in the world but they weren't even close to what we wanted...which was first ten rows floor minimum. And, after the second show sold out, they announced a third show date. Three dates in a row. So, show date arrives and we get to our seats early. Suddenly, these two very hot ladies do this walk from the front floor area to the back floor area where the PA mixer/island was set up. They play some music that I can't remember what. And, each lady proceeded to take their tops off and get up on a stand to dance. My first thought was, "they got to be trannies, right?". They seemed hot but it felt like they might have been dudes in drag. But, them tiddies. No way! Who were they? No idea. My second thought was there is no way in hell this can be legal right? This is a strip show at a rock concert...after all. I don't really remember the concert itself. Maybe bits and pieces of images of Dave dancing around doing karate kicks and microphone stand twirls. Anyway, thought I would share that crazy time back when VH may have peaked in its popularity with the "1984" tour in Houston.
