JERRY CANTRELL

“When we first toured with Van Halen we went out and did a leg with them and we hit it off really well. They were really great to us and they gave us one of our first big breaks. They kept asking us to come back on for further legs and we ended up being on tour with them for about six months. I became really good friends with Ed and to this day it’s one of the friendships that I treasure the most. We don’t hang out all the time, but any time I see him he comes up and gives me a hug and a kiss. He’s just a really genuine guy and we’ve always hit if off really well.

“When he had his guitar line, I asked him if I could buy one off of him and he said, ‘Fuck that, man. When you have nothing nobody will give you shit and when you have everything like I have, everybody gives you everything for free. It’s reversed and it should be the other way around. Let me hook you up.’ So at the end of that tour I came home and I was living with one of my managers at the time, I was living downstairs at their house. He greeted me at the door and was like, ‘Hey, welcome back, man. Good tour. Now, would you mind getting your shit out of my garage?!’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?!’ ‘Eddie Van Halen filled up my garage full of shit for you.’ He opened up the garage and there were a couple of full stacks, a couple of heads and two of the EVHs. One particular being a Goldtop. Somebody somewhere along the line stole that from me and I wish I had that guitar. I don’t know where it is, it’s still out there somewhere. That guitar means a lot to me.”