Shinedown’s Brent Smith on Eddie Van Halen During Their 2004 Tour: “The most incredible rock n’ roll story that is 100% true”

SiriusXM:

Brent Smith from Shinedown plays ‘A Moment When’ and recalls when he first met Eddie Van Halen, the strangest fan gift he’s received, performing at a venue when the power went out, forgetting the lyrics to “Simple Man” on tour, and much more.

You can listen to more stories from Brent Smith via the embedded YouTube clip below. The Eddie Van Halen excerpt has been transcribed.

EXCERPT (transcribed by full in bloom)

Brent Smith:

On the first record, we got the opportunity of a lifetime to do two months with Van Halen. And then over time on this tour, me and Eddie (Van Halen) just developed a friendship. One of the sweetest, most amazing human beings on the planet, but if I’m going to be honest about what I remember from this tour, which is probably one of the most incendiary moments of all time.

Eddie would always come in around five o’clock. They flew private everywhere, so they would come in around five o’clock. Eddie never wore a shirt. He was always wearing camo pants and combat boots. He always had his guitar around him, and he was always smoking a cigarette. He would drink Yellow Tail wine, so he always had purple around his lips. It’s everything you want him to be (laughs).

This one day, he comes into the dressing room, and I hear him come in. I’m in the bathroom, and I’m washing my hands. He’s like, “Hey, where’s Brent?” They’re like, “He’s in the bathroom.” So, I come out of the bathroom. I’m like, “Eddie, what’s up?” I hadn’t dried my hands all the way, so I gave him a high-five, and he’s goes, “Ah, dude, what?” I said, “Oh, you know, I just had to handle my business in there.”

He walks over to our deli area, like craft services in the room. He then proceeds to urinate on the deli tray and take a piece of turkey and rolled it up and put it in the center. He took his cigarette and stuck it in the top of the turkey. Then he handed me the deli tray with the urine and said, “Give this to your tour manager, it’s called a smoking gun,” and he walked out of the room.

The most incredible rock n’ roll story that is 100% true that I can think of from the past. I miss Eddie so, so much. Seriously, he’s one of the sweetest human beings in the world, and I miss him every single day, but also gave you a killer story.