BLABBERMOUTH.NET
KISS bassist/vocalist
Gene Simmons has paid tribute to
Eddie Van Halen, who died earlier today (Tuesday, October 6) at the age of 65. The legendary
VAN HALEN guitarist's death was confirmed by his son, and
VAN HALEN bassist,
Wolfgang Van Halen.
Less than a couple of hours ago,
Simmons tweeted out a video message in which he said: "I just found out that
Eddie Van Halen passed away. I'm heartbroken. He wasn't just a guitar god to millions of people, but
Eddie was a gentle soul. What can I say? Rest in peace,
Eddie. Rest in peace."
Simmons has claimed in several interviews that he once had to talk
Eddie out of leaving
VAN HALEN and teaming up with
KISS. Asked in the April 2014 issue of
Guitar World if it was true that
Van Halen wanted to join
KISS around the time of 1982's
"Creatures Of The Night" album,
Simmons said: "That is true. And he was very serious. He was so unhappy about how he and [
David Lee]
Roth were — or weren't — getting along. He couldn't stand him. And drugs were rampant. And so he took me to lunch, to a diner right across the street from the
Record Plant.
Vinnie Vincent, who was not yet in
KISS, tagged along, too. Sneaky guy. And
Eddie said, 'I want to join
KISS. I don't want to fight anymore with
Roth. I'm sick and tired of it.' But I told him, '
Eddie, there's not enough room. You need to be in a band where you can direct the music. You're not going to be happy in
KISS.' I talked him out of it. It didn't fit."
During the 2018
"Kiss Kruise",
KISS frontman
Paul Stanley was asked by a fan if there is any truth to the rumor that
Eddie nearly ended up in
KISS.
Paul responded: "No.
Eddie Van Halen did not almost join
KISS.
Eddie [came down to] the studio. I think there was some strife within the band [
VAN HALEN] at that point, for him, and
Eddie came down just to see what was going on. And I remember he was really blown away by the solo in [the song]
'Creatures [Of The Night]'. He said, 'Get that guy.' That guy who played the solo in
'Creatures' was a guy named
Steve Farris, who was in a band called
MISTER MISTER, who had a bunch of hits. But the guitar player was great. And at that point,
Eddie was getting into keyboards. And I remember he brought some tapes of some of the songs he was working on. And it was, like, this guy is this unbelievable guitar player. [I thought], '
Eddie, what are you doing on keyboards?' But that was the start of
'Jump' and all that other stuff that came afterwards. But
Eddie was never going to join
KISS and was never almost in
KISS."
In a 1995 interview with
The Times Leader,
Eddie was asked if it was true that he met with
Gene and
Paul in Los Angeles 13 years earlier to discuss the possibility of him joining
KISS. He responded: "Not that I know of… Unless I was so fucked up [that] I don't remember. They might have asked me… They might have just asked me in passing, and I just kind of laughed it off, probably. If it happened, I'm sure I would have remembered. Maybe they did ask me and I just thought they were joking."
Simmons has repeatedly taken credit for "discovering"
VAN HALEN and flying the band to New York to record a 15-song demo at
Electric Lady Studios, with
Gene at the production helm. But he ended up not working with the group after his
KISS bandmates and manager,
Bill Aucoin, expressed little interest in his demos. "I gave the demo back to the band, told them I had a tour to go on and afterward I would try to get them a record deal, but until then, I tore up our contract and set them free," he said. "It didn't take them long to get on
Warner Bros."
According to
TMZ,
Eddie died at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. His wife,
Janie, was by his side, along with
Wolfgang, and
Alex,
Eddie's brother and
VAN HALEN drummer.
The site reports that
Eddie's ongoing health battle went massively downhill in the last 72 hours, with doctors discovering his cancer had moved to his brain as well as other organs.
There have been a lot of rumors regarding the
VAN HALEN guitarist's supposedly worsening health, with
TMZ reporting recently that
Van Halen has been traveling between the U.S. and Germany for cancer treatment going on several years now.
Last November,
TMZ reported that
Eddie spent several days in a hospital due to complications from his cancer treatment. Sources close to the legendary guitarist told the site he was admitted to the hospital with intestinal issues and abdominal pain, both the result of a bad reaction to the drugs
Eddie was reportedly taking to battle throat cancer.