Along with everything else that happened in 2020, Eddie Van Halen (EVH) passed away in early October. Back in the day, Van Halen the group was a thing and Eddie was regarded as a guitar virtuoso. I saw the first two tours and they were shows in every sense of the word.
Nearly every month, multiple music magazines would print a story about the band, often highlighting tales of debauchery, arrogance, or just plain bad behavior.
Note: Magazines are what we had before the Internet.
As a budding teenage terror, I just lapped all of it up, even going so far as to act out some of that bad behavior. Somewhere in there, I stopped listening to their music. So, initially, Eddie’s death didn’t affect me much.
A week or so after he died, I watched a video where he was a guest on a show titled “What It Means to Be an American”. The Eddie Van Halen I saw in this interview was far different from the rock star I thought I knew.
Eddie showed up in an old sweater, t-shirt and blue jeans. No leather or animal prints. He also told the story of coming to the United States. His father, a professional musician in Holland, immigrated the family to the US in the late 1960s. The elder Van Halen worked three jobs as a janitor and handyman, but always managed to pay for music lessons for his sons. Both Eddie and Alex were teenage piano prodigies before taking up the guitar and drums. I could go on and tell the rest of the story, but it would be much better to listen to Eddie. During the interview, he was polite, humble (Matthew 23:12), grateful (James 1:17) and honored to parents (Proverbs 20:20).
Am I saying that Eddie Van Halen was a Christian? Nope, I really have no idea. You might be thinking that he just matured. I’m sure there was some of that, but in the days after his death and in magazines months later, person after person told stories that showed Eddie’s kindness, generosity and just general all-around good guy nature.
A few months ago, I wrote about discernment (Truth). And I certainly could have used a bit more of that. The music magazines back in the day probably wouldn’t have sold many magazines with Eddie on the cover with an “All-round good guy” caption.
And I think that we could all use a bit more discernment right now. There’s a lot of fiery rhetoric and propaganda to sift through. When I was in law enforcement, we always asked “Does it pass the sniff test?”.
My simplistic version of the sniff test is just asking yourself if the story behind the clickbait makes any sense. If it doesn’t pass the sniff test, you gotta look closer.
A better version of the sniff test is to grab your Bible, go get quiet and read a bit of God’s Word. Then ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you in your heart.
One last lesson from Eddie. In every picture I saw of him playing a guitar, he had a joyous smile just because he was playing music. Go find your gift (Romans 11:29) and make some music.