Jerry Cantrell Recalls Eddie Van Halen Filling Manager’s Garage with Free Gear After 1991 Tour

Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell scored a garage packed with equipment from Eddie Van Halen after the two struck up a friendship during Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour in the early 1990s. 

The bands hit the road together in 1991, and Cantrell met the guitar icon just moments before walking onstage for the first show.

"The first time I met Ed Van Halen, I was getting ready to go onstage [to open] for his band," said Cantrell to Gibson TV. 

"He was standing in my pit with [his wife] Valerie [Bertinelli] right next to him and Wolfie in her arms. He's got his guitar on, and he's running scales like, 'Hey, dude, what's up?' And I'm like, 'Are you ... kidding me?'" The meeting shook him. "I think it was probably the worst show I ever played in my life, because I could not stop thinking, 'He's right there!' I couldn't focus," Cantrell said.

As the tour rolled on, the two musicians became tight. They would jam backstage and swap stories about gear. Cantrell found himself drawn to the Peavey 5150 amps and Ernie Ball Music Man EVH signature model guitars that Van Halen played on tour.

Cantrell asked if he might purchase one at a discount. "He was like, 'F* that dude, I'll just give you a guitar! ... When I couldn't afford it, nobody would give me anything. So let me do that for you,'" recalled the Alice in Chains member.

The tour wrapped in mid-1992. At the time, Cantrell was crashing with Alice in Chains manager Kelly Curtis and his wife. Curtis had some news when Cantrell returned. "He's like, 'Hey man, welcome home. You had a good tour? Now you can relax. Hey, by the way, do you think you could clear your shit out of my garage? I need to put my car in there,'" said Cantrell.

Curtis told him Eddie Van Halen had crammed the garage with guitars, amp heads, and cabs. "I haven't been able to park my car in my garage for months," the manager told him. All this stuff was an awesome gift from Eddie.