I have a couple of Van Halen pins. To give you a sense of how small they are, I shot them next to that smallest of candles, the tealight.
This first one, I don’t know. It’s dated 1991, and I saw them in 1992 on their For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour, so I may have bought it at the concert. But I tended to pick up Van Halen items at record shows, too, so I could have gotten it that way. Either way, it was a great concert, and I had a blast.
Like a majority of Van Halen fans, I’d have loved for the Kitchen Sink Tour to have come to fruition: a tour with the band that included Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone, and David Lee Roth with Michael Anthony, and the Van Halens: Edward, Alex, and Wolf. It was in the planning stages when COVID shut it down, and then of course, EVH was sick and died in October last year. It would have been epic.
This wee one, I had to have it when I saw it in the etsy shop of pizzawednesday. They have so much of their art on things like stickers, pins, key chains, featuring musicians and pop culture icons, slogans, etc. Check out their store at that link.
The box came with instructions on how to turn it into a stage, plus they threw in a few stickers and the thank you note they wrote had me smiling SO BIG: “Hello Becky! Thank you SO MUCH for your order & support! EDDIE ROCKS!!! … and so do you! Enjoy your new pin! Best Wishes, Michael and Mary O”
Something so small, arriving with kindness so big–talk about rocking, Michael and Mary do! Will definitely order from them again.
Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this, but I have no idea what EVH sang…
You may never have heard any of their music unless you were into hard rock in the 1970s onward. He did things with the guitar no one else ever had, and many guitarists cite him as inspiration and the reason they learned to play guitar.