Brian May Recalls Drunken Night with Eddie Van Halen

Brian May shared a story about a wild drunken night with Eddie Van Halen in a new interview.

Speaking to Classic Rock magazine, the Queen guitarist mention how he needs to stay in touch with more of his peer saying, "I tend to be a bit shy and reclusive myself. I regret terribly that I didn't keep in touch more with Ed Van Halen."

When asked what his favorite memory of EVH was, May replied, "I have a lot of favorite memories, but I do remember one time him coming to see us play. We went back to the hotel afterwards. He’d brought a bottle of his favorite drink with him, which I think was Southern Comfort. Anyway, he’s knocking it back, and so I started knocking it back, and I completely lost it."

He continued, "The next thing I remember I was on the floor in the bathroom, having fallen down and cracked my head on the wash basin. I don’t even remember going into the bathroom. It’s one of the few times in my life where I’ve gotten out of control."

Eddie Van Halen was the most influential guitarist of our generation.

Of course, flashy, fleet-fingered guitarists were a dime a dozen in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Eddie was better than all of them, but he was more than that. A songwriter, a keyboardist, a studio wizard, ¼ of Van Halen’s four-part harmony team and a band leader that was able to guide VH through losing the most distinctive frontman of the ‘80s and led them to four chart-topping albums with Sammy Hagar.

Here, we take on the tough task of ranking their top 30 songs. (It was really, really tough to cut any of the songs on the first six albums from this list.)