It's somewhat of a hot-take reaction of the loss. But, when you get down to it; Eddie could play just about everything! I remember reading about when they cut the track "Could This Be Magic", on Women and Children First.
And, he said that he'd never really tried playing bottleneck blues/slide guitar before. And, as you can hear, he took to it instantly. He's not Ry Cooder, but, he can pull-it-off convincingly. Ry Cooder can't play like Van Halen at all. Same with recording "Apolitical Blues"... he's not Lowell George, but he can get closer to George than George could ever come to Eddie.
Some friends of mine were just talking about how the consensus between Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page- all former Yardbirds- and who was "the best." Clapton and Page will tell you it's Jeff Beck. Jeff can play like Jimmy and Eric, but neither of them can play like Jeff.
There's no system to measure who is "best" at an art form. But, Van Halen was just born with it inside of him. I read where he learned piano from his teacher by just watching the teacher and not taking time to learn to read the music! But, he could match the teacher's talent right away! He played saxophone, cello, tons of instruments.
Been battling it for like 20+ years, off an on, I think. He chain-smoked Marlboros from like age 13 or 14. I remember he was on Howard Stern, YEARS ago, talking about his first doctor and the treatment process he used. It was unconventional. "I don't wanna just pour Drano into my veins, ya'know?" But, what was funny was how he was insisting that the cancer came from him holding the plastic pick in his mouth a lot- which he would do. Originally it was under his tongue, not his throat. But, Howard and Robin were laughing at him, "Dude, that ain't from no guitar guitar pick! You're sucking down those cigarettes like a junkie!"
I don't think he ever fully gave up smoking, either.
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