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The Jesus and Mary Chain has said that Eddie Van Halen is one of the "worst guitarists in the world" and that he "ruined rock guitar" for two decades.
In an interview Stereogum Over the weekend, two guitarists from a Scottish alternative rock band, Jim and William Reid, launched a verbal sparring match against one of the world's most beloved guitar virtuosos. If anything more edgy than this emerges in 2026, it might just melt the entire planet.
Arguing that less equipment can make musicians more creative, Jim Reed says, "I can play guitar, but I struggle. It's a conscious approach. I play guitar at the level I need to. Sometimes too much knowledge about music production gets in the way, and it all comes back to Eddie Van Halen.".
William then delivers the hardest blows, calling Eddie one of the "worst guitar players in the world.".
«"I can't stand Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing," he says. "I think he ruined rock guitar throughout the '80s and '90s because too many people copied him. And I just couldn't learn to play as fast as possible and cram as many notes per second as possible.".
«"I listen to Peter Hook's [Joy Division/New Order bassist] riffs and I think they're a thousand times better than anything Eddie Van Halen could write.".
Van Halen's influence on the guitar scene of the time has been widely discussed. For example, Wolfgang Van Halen once said that his father "kind of ruined" the guitar scene of the 1980s because it spawned so many imitators.
However, such sentiments have never been expressed with such, shall we say, enthusiasm.
One thing only eruption forever changed the electric guitar landscape, but Wolfgang argued that these imitators ignored EVH's other qualities—qualities that the Jesus and Mary Chain apparently don't care much about.
In this regard, Steve Lukather recently released an update on the upcoming Van Halen album, which will feature previously unreleased recordings from Eddie.