Why EDDIE VAN HALEN Donated 75 Guitars
July 16, 2012, 12 years ago
The Van Halen News Desk reports that in January 2012, EDDIE VAN HALEN donated 75 guitars to The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, single-handedly putting the foundation on the world’s radar once again.
Freelance writer Alison Richter interviewed Felice Mancini, the executive director of The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation; an excerpt follows:
The timing couldn’t have been better: new album, new tour, everyone is talking about Van Halen... and then the 75 guitars. It was the shot heard around the world to put this foundation back on the map.
"Eddie’s management company knew that Eddie wanted to give these guitars away. He didn’t want to sell them, he didn’t want to auction them, he wanted them to go to schools — to kids who would actually play them. They did a search and we came up. We usually do if somebody types in 'music charity' or whatever. They called and said, 'We have a client who is interested in doing this,' and they talked to us for a long time. They were just doing their due diligence.Eddie wanted it to be a credible charity where he knew that his wishes would be honored. We had several conversations back and forth. This went on over a period of months; it wasn’t a 'pick up the phone and it happened.' They did not tell us who it was until they were sure that they liked us and that we were the ones. And we found out and we thought, Whoa! OK! Wonderful! We found some schools for them and they said, 'We can make this announcement.' The timing with the tour — it wasn’t all that strategic. It just happened that the stuff came out when it did because Eddie was very busy rehearsing. He didn’t really have the time to do it before, so we had to wait until he was ready. We just wanted the guitars to get to the schools during the school year so that they could use them. It was really wonderful."
Further details can be found here.
CBS2's video report of Van Halen’s impact on Garfield High School can be seen below:
