This has been an ongoing question between my friends and I for many years now - would Eddie Van Halen be as well known and revered today if the band had not hired David Lee Roth as its lead singer?
My answer is NO. I believe that, although Eddie was a singular talent and his guitar playing technique was certainly something that could attract attention on its own, it would've been considered more of a circus stunt after a few years if not for Roth's stage persona and songwriting skills. The combination of Eddies playing and Roth's singing and stage antics is what helped propelled Van Halen into the stratosphere.
Eddie is an amazing guitarist, but there are plenty of other amazing guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Yngwie Malmsteen among others who are just as talented as Eddie but never reached the heights of Van Halen simply because they weren't paired with an polarizing lead singer like Eddie was with Roth. Randy Rhoads is a guitarist with a similar path as Eddie. Both came up in the So Cal area and both hit the club scene at the same time and both played a similar style of lead guitar with the signature hammer-ons and pull-offs and "tapping" techniques, but as the lead guitarist for the band Quiet Riot (before they hit it big themselves), Randy wasn't very well known outside L.A. until he was hired by Ozzy Osbourne for his first solo Blizzard of Ozz album, and now despite his untimely death at age 25 in 1982, is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock guitarists of all-time, despite only producing 2 albums with Ozzy (4 if you count the Mr. Crowley Live EP and the live Tribute album released 5 years after his death). I believe this is greatly attributed to his pairing with Ozzy.
Same goes for Eddie, great guitarist, but without Roth, I don't think he would be nearly as well known.
My answer is NO. I believe that, although Eddie was a singular talent and his guitar playing technique was certainly something that could attract attention on its own, it would've been considered more of a circus stunt after a few years if not for Roth's stage persona and songwriting skills. The combination of Eddies playing and Roth's singing and stage antics is what helped propelled Van Halen into the stratosphere.
Eddie is an amazing guitarist, but there are plenty of other amazing guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Yngwie Malmsteen among others who are just as talented as Eddie but never reached the heights of Van Halen simply because they weren't paired with an polarizing lead singer like Eddie was with Roth. Randy Rhoads is a guitarist with a similar path as Eddie. Both came up in the So Cal area and both hit the club scene at the same time and both played a similar style of lead guitar with the signature hammer-ons and pull-offs and "tapping" techniques, but as the lead guitarist for the band Quiet Riot (before they hit it big themselves), Randy wasn't very well known outside L.A. until he was hired by Ozzy Osbourne for his first solo Blizzard of Ozz album, and now despite his untimely death at age 25 in 1982, is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock guitarists of all-time, despite only producing 2 albums with Ozzy (4 if you count the Mr. Crowley Live EP and the live Tribute album released 5 years after his death). I believe this is greatly attributed to his pairing with Ozzy.
Same goes for Eddie, great guitarist, but without Roth, I don't think he would be nearly as well known.