Mentor and Disciple: “The Death of Superman” - A Tribute to EVH

Through the years, there have been many different schools of buddhist thought, but they’ve all built upon the original teachings of Shakyamuni and passed down what they’d learned to the next generation. They did this by following in the footsteps of their mentor and honored them by living the teachings with integrity, setting an example and then passing the torch to the next disciples, keeping the flame of the dharma burning brightly. Essentially, this is how all humans have learned things, from the dawn of mankind - through the knowledge and wisdom of those that came before them. However, the purity of the wisdom depends entirely on the integrity of the teacher…

This lineage of 'mentor and disciple' is woven into everything we do and having the right mentors throughout our lives can determine the outcome of our life's mission and ultimately, whether we succeed or fail. I wanted to honor one of the most important musical mentors I’ve ever had and exemplify just how his wisdom and influence played such a big part in who I’ve become, musically as well as personally. The lessons I’ve learned by following Edward Van Halen over the last forty two years go far beyond just music...

Losing Edward on October 6th, 2020 was much more devastating to me than even I had imagined it would be and I still feel like a piece of who I am is no longer with me. I put this episode together as a tribute to him and the piece in the second half was written as sort of my own, personal eulogy, that I’d imagined myself reading at his memorial. I asked some of my very best guitar player friends to contribute some music, so that this would be an extra special episode that Edward himself would appreciate! There’s some killer guitar music in this episode and all who contributed are also disciples of King Edward, the "punk kid from Pasadena" who made all of our lives so magical. I’m sure Edward would approve! I hope you enjoy it!

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