David Crosby is relatively inactive, musically speaking, but he is very active on Twitter, and is nothing if not brutally honest. As the tributes came pouring in for legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen after his sudden death, a fan reached out to David to ask his opinion. Being his honest self, Crosby responded with a simple "meh."
Normally, when such a controversial situation occurs, we would screencap it, in case the original poster decided to take the offending post down. But we have a feeling that Crosby does not plan on taking this down at all.
Crosby, at 79-years-old, probably never really got into Van Halen, as he was already hitting 40 when Van Halen was the hip new band for the kids. So it's easy to see how the music never really caught his attention.
After many fans thought the response was "rude," Crosby clarified that wasn't his intent, writing "Sorry ..just meant he does not move me much."
When a fan responded to that tweet saying "yeah, the guy only changed the world of guitar, Dave," Crosby quipped back, possibly not helping his case. He wrote "Hendrix changed the world of guitar. Nobody else really …look I get it ..many of you loved Van Halen ….and the one time I met he was nice ….and he was talented …meh to me means I don’t care that much ….and I don’t …doesn’t mean he wasn’t good ,he was but not for me"
Some rock artists took offense to the response. Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick responded to Crosby saying "I appreciate [David Crosby] too much for this to get in the way, but a much better answer would have been: “I know he meant a lot to so many but his sound & style just weren’t my thing.”
Traci Gunns, also chimed in, responding to Crosby with "Wrong answer as fuck and rude as fuck!!! There are better ways to say you don’t care for someone’s music. That was very disrespectful. And yes straight out fuck you and your smug answer."
It does seem like Crosby was just offering his opinion on the music, and it's his right. It doesn't take away what Eddie Van Halen meant to millions of people.
Eddie Van Halen Photo: Joe Bielawa
David Crosby Photo: David Shankbone
