Jesus and Mary Chain Guitarist Says Eddie Van Halen 'Ruined ...

Jesus and Mary Chain Guitarist Says Eddie Van Halen ‘Ruined Rock Guitar’

For many, Eddie Van Halen is regarded as one of the greatest and most gifted guitarists to ever put fingers to frets. This classic rock fan regards the late great EVH as the best to ever do it.

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I’m fairly confident my opinion is held by a large group of rock music fans, however when it comes to something as subjective as music, not everyone holds Van Halen in the same high regard.

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Jim and William Reid of Scottish alt-rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain are two of them. William even claims Eddie “ruined rock guitar.”

In fact he is so critical of Van Halen, he’s dubbed the legendary guitarist as among the “worst guitarists,” in an interview with Stereogum.

“I think guitar players should never learn scales,” William said in the interview. “I think the worst guitar players in the world — like Eddie Van Halen. I can’t stand Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing. I think he ruined rock guitar all through the ’80s and ’90s ’cause so many people copied him. And I just couldn’t get any of that playing as fast as you [expletive] can and cramming as many notes in one second as you could. And I listen to Peter Hook’s bass riffs, and I think that’s a thousand times better than anything Eddie Van Halen could ever conjure up.”

“Ruined rock guitar” by revolutionizing the way a guitar could be played, and inspired thousands of guitarists’ style of play to help progress rock music?

In the case of William Reid v. Eddie Van Halen, the jury finds Eddie … not guilty!

While I can understand some criticism for what became rock’s glam metal (hair metal) era, although I personally love the controversial rock subgenre, it is quite unfair to lay the blame at Eddie’s feet.

Jim didn’t stray from his brother’s position at all when it came to Van Halen’s guitar play when talking about his own style:

“Not having a lot of equipment actually forces you to be more inventive,” Jim said in the interview. “I can play guitar, but only just. It’s kinda deliberate. I play guitar to the level that I need to play guitar. And sometimes knowing too much about making music gets in the way, and it ends up back to Eddie Van Halen again, do you know what I mean?”

It sounds less like a fair technical critique of Eddie and more like two musicians from a completely different guitar universe taking a swing at the style they never cared for in the first place.

In fairness to the Reids, I did my due diligence by looking them up and listening to a few of their songs. The band is considered pioneers of the noise pop and shoegaze (they are not fans of the latter term) subgenres.

While their music was admittedly really popular in their native Scotland and the U.K. during the ’80s and ’90s, they never quite made it across the pond. After listening to a few of their songs, I can understand why.

The Jesus and Mary Chain and Van Halen aren’t anywhere close to the same stratospheres when it comes to what the respective bands’ music is. Van Halen is hard rock, and JAMC is alt-pop rock.

Eddie Van Halen is always going to be remembered as one of the greatest guitarists in music history. That’s his legacy.

The Reids, who I hadn’t heard of until I saw the news today, may be remembered well at home, but their legacies don’t come close to the man who changed what people thought a guitar could do.

But hey, if you have to insult a legend to find relevancy in 2026, kudos to them for finding some. Mission accomplished.