Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash is featured in the WGN News interview clip discussing the death of Eddie Van Halen. The interview took place on October 6th, the day of Eddie's passing. Slash also discusses also discusses his connections to Chicago and new business ventures.

Slash: "It's hard for me to verbally say anything, other than I'm just devastated. Eddie changed guitar playing. I picked up the guitar, I guess it was 1979, 1980. The first Van Halen record came out, and Steven Adler - Guns N' Roses original drummer - when we were kids we used to just hang out and ditch school and go to the pizza place and whatnot. We used to listen to that first Van Halen record, and it was just insane. It was like, 'What the fuck?' He was such an amazing musician, amazing guitar player, amazing innovator and just a hell of a guy, and we really lost a major contributor to rock and roll today."

Billboard is reporting that after the death of Eddie Van Halen on October 6, the band Van Halen, which he co-founded, saw its catalog of albums and songs post a 6,198% sales increase in the US that same day.

According to initial sales reports to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, Van Halen’s collected albums and songs sold 40,000 copies on October 6 - up 6,198% compared to just under 1,000 sold on October 5.

Looking just at the band’s album sales, the act’s catalog sold 9,000 copies on October 6 (up by 5,835% compared to a negligible sum on October 5). The act’s top-selling album on October 6 was its self-titled 1978 debut, with 2,000 sold.

In terms of songs, the group sold 31,000 tracks on October 6 - up 6,317% compared to less than 1,000 sold on October 5.

Read the full report at Billboard.com.

Photo - Joe Kleon