Watch Van Halen show off his new axe » After years of wearing down ... So many people can pick out an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo, but not a lot of people know who you are as a human being.

"Eddie Van Halen was a guitar superhero ... Looking up to him as a young kid was one of the driving forces in my needing to pick up a guitar," John Mayer wrote in his emotional tribute PEOPLE ...

Previously unseen footage of Eddie Van Halen jamming with ... how the pair's friendship began, and how Van Halen's playing inspired him to pick up the guitar after a break in 1976.

It wasn't until I was hanging out that he was like, 'Hey Wolf pick up a bass.'" Valerie Bertinelli Gets Honest About 'Drugs, Alcohol, Infidelity' with Eddie Van Halen, Says He Was 'Not a Soulmate ...

On one of many drives I’d take down to New York City and back to pick up clothes and other supplies ... she once gifted the man his first non-electric axe. “When Heart toured with Van Halen I asked ...