Originally streamed via Twitch in 2021 as part of his Shred talk series, DragonForce guitarist Herman Li has shared his interview with Extreme guitar legend Nuno Bettencourt. Check out the full chat below.

 

In a tale told to Guitar World’s Amit Sharma by Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger in an interview, Eddie Van Halen was a huge fan of Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, so much so that he used to play one of Bettencourt’s riffs regularly during Van Halen soundchecks. Bettencourt once linked up with Van Halen’s guitar tech, who was present when the Extreme virtuoso started reciting the riff to "He-Man Woman Hater" from the band's Pornograffitti album, released in 1990.

However, despite having been originally penned by Bettencourt, the guitar tech mistook it for an unrecorded, unreleased Van Halen track, owing to the fact Eddie used to play it at "every single soundcheck."

Kroeger: "(Bettencourt) told me this great story once. He was using Eddie Van Halen’s guitar tech when Van Halen were on downtime. He started playing 'He-Man Woman Hater' during soundcheck and the tech said, 'Oh, how do you know that riff? It’s a Van Halen riff that’s never been recorded!' And Nuno was like, 'What are you talking about?' And the tech said that Eddie used to play that song every single soundcheck. Nuno looked at him with his eyes lighting up and said, 'It’s our song and I wrote it, it’s called He-Man Woman Hater, and you just made my life!'"

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