Justin Hawkins thinks there’s one guitarist who could have rivalled Eddie Van Halen – if only he was born 10 years earlier
Justin Hawkins of The Darkness believes there’s one virtuoso that could have rivalled Eddie Van Halen back in the 1980s, if only he wasn’t “born 10 years too late”.
Talking to Rick Beato, Hawkins claims Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt would be “competing with Eddie Van Halen if he were a bit younger”, but that his talents went under the radar in the ’90s.
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According to Hawkins, Bettencourt may have become better known if Extreme were thrust into the bigger limelight that was 1980s glam metal, rather than being subject to the differing tastes of the ’90s.
“Extreme was successful with their couple of ballads… More Than Words was such a big hit, and it transcended like an Everly Brothers type song… But Nuno is one of the greatest guitar players of his generation.”
He’s also quick to add that he doesn’t think the rise of grunge had anything to do with what killed off glam rock. Instead, he thinks that glam metal bands like “Nitro… killed it because then nobody’s going to be able to sing higher than Jim Gillette. Nobody’s going to be able to play as fast or as ridiculous as Michael Angelo Batio.”
“So I think Nitro was the natural conclusion of that, and it meant the end for bands like Extreme unfortunately and other interesting glam rock stuff from that period.”
Hawkins’ own band The Darkness gained success in the 2000s after Extreme, and reminisces about what his own band might have missed out on: “Rivalries are what got people excited about music. It seemed like the ’80s were this wonderfully tumultuous decade”.
Hawkins doesn’t believe that rock should return to the old days, though. As he told Kerrang! earlier this year: “It’s about getting to a certain age and realising that the world’s changing, and you’ve gotta change or that’s you fucked, you get left behind. And that’s rock.”
“It’s actually from the perspective of rock – rock is a middle-aged guy in a world full of people who are just generation… whatever the fuck it is now, and it has to wake up and be part of it.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
