Angus Young pays homage to Eddie Van Halen

The Aussie hard rock icon paid tribute to the Van Halen axe-man in a book devoted to the Dutch legend which is due out on Oct.12 and is aptly titled, 'Eddie Van Halen.'

In the book the school-boy clad rock veteran says:

"AC/DC played on a bill with Van Halen back in 1978 or 1979. I didn’t know much about Van Halen then except that I remember seeing film clips of them, especially the one of Eddie playing the solo piece Eruption – and I was very impressed.

"I didn’t meet Eddie until years later when there was a Monsters of Rock open-air festival in England. I was shocked to hear he liked my playing, because I’ve never rated myself as a guitarist."

"When Eddie came along he spawned so many imitators," says Young. "Like Hendrix, suddenly you started to see people wanting to buy the same guitars he played, and also play his licks. He turned the rule book upside down in terms of his approach.

"When Jimi Hendrix came along it was like, ‘Where did this guy come from?’ I think it was the same feeling with Eddie. When Eddie appeared on the scene every guitarist I ran into said, ‘You’ve gotta hear this guy!’"