Slash and Kirk Hammett to salute Eddie Van Halen on US TV special

The influence and importance of the late Eddie Van Halen will be acknowledged during a US TV special honouring the 2020 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees on Saturday, November 7.

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Rage Against The Machine man Tom Morello will pay tribute to Eddie Van Halen’s legacy during the show. Van Halen passed away, aged 65, on October 6, due to complications from a two decade battle with cancer.

Van Halen were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007, though neither Eddie nor his drummer brother Alex attended the ceremony in Cleveland.

It was announced in March that the 2020 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony, due to be held on May 2, would be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The TV special being staged in its place will be broadcast on HBO at 8 pm ET.

Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode are among the artists being inducted into the Hall Of Fame this year. Trent Reznor admitted earlier this year that he always considered the whole concept “absurd”, but was now “quite honoured” that his group were being included.

“It is just nice to see a bunch of people celebrating music as the primary thing,” he told Rolling Stone. “It felt legit.”

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.