LA WEEKLY Writer Reports On Recent EDDIE VAN HALEN Sighting

Ted E. Grau of the LA Weekly reports:

"On a recent morning, as I was driving my beloved to work in Century City from North Hollywood, we stopped at a gas station on the corner of Coldwater and Ventura to load up on supplies (coffee, smokes, Bratz press-on tattoos, etc.) before heading up the canyon to parts better known and vastly overpriced.

"Tapping my toe to the hottest of Hindi hits lilting softly through the burnt-coffee-scented air, I noticed a small commotion at the front of the line. What I saw was a frail, hunched man, with longish, stringy hair and gnarled, shaky, 'hard work' hands, wearing a loose-fitting long-john shirt, faded jeans and expensive track shoes. While the cashier waited, the man muttered to himself as he arranged six packs of smokes into a stack on the countertop — three packs of American Spirit heavies, three packs of Marlboro Light 100s (the chica smoke of choice). He was too well dressed to be a bum, but also too unkempt and 'lived in' to be anything other than a burned-out roadie or an out-of-work roofer. He'd obviously seen too many late nights, but he also seemed like a scrappy sort who could mix it up, work with his hands, create... Hmmm... What's this Hessian dude's deal? And what's with the smoke stacking, you goddamn smoke stacker?

"As I watched him futz around with the cigs and thought to myself, 'This is one chain-smoking mother fucker,' he turned his head to the side, giving me a brief glimpse of his profile. All at once, I realized that he looked very familiar, like an old friend who didn't look the way I remembered but was still very recognizable based on a strong memory deeply rooted in the lizard brain of my youth. Then it hit me, like the first strains of 'Runnin' With the Devil', the midpoint of 'Eruption', the last note of 'Ice Cream Man'.

"This was Eddie Van Halen."

Read the rest of the article at www.laweekly.com.