Slash, Kirk Hammett + Tom Morello Salute Eddie Van Halen During Rock Hall Ceremony

While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony was set up to celebrate the new inductees, there was a very special segment for one of the already existing Rock Hall members, the late Eddie Van Halen.

The guitar hero inspired a generation of players and you need look no further than some of his peers who paid tribute to the iconic musician.

Slash stated, "Eddie Van Halen was a truly gifted musician. His style and his sound were completely unique to him. He had a massive impact on guitar playing and I don't think there's anybody who has picked up a guitar since 1978 who hasn't been touched in some way by Eddie Van Halen's influence. I really miss his playing and I really miss him as a friend."

Kirk Hammett added, "Eddie Van Halen was amazing. Not since Jimi Hendrix had there been a guitar player that had so much impact and was so inspiring to me. He just explored the most simplest thing, a harmonic on a string, and brought it into a realm of technique that nobody even thought was possible. He was just like from a different planet."

Tom Morello concluded, "Eddie Van Halen was the Mozart of our generation. He had the kind of talent that maybe comes around once a century. Eddie Van Halen inspired me to practice 20,000 hours to try to get within a hundred miles of his inspired mastery of the electric guitar."

The segment included footage of Van Halen's signature finger-tap playing style as the musicians celebrated Eddie's legacy. That led into the the In Memoriam segment which singled out Spencer Davis, Ric Ocasek, Roky Erickson, Adam Schlesinger, Andy Gill, Jack Sherman, Eddie Money, Tony Lewis, Lee Kerslake, Frankie Banali, Phil May, Steve Priest, Peter Green, Ginger Baker and Neil Peart before finishing up with one of the pioneers of rock – Little Richard.