In a new interview with Classic Rock History, The Autograph’s Steve Plunkett recalled opening for Van Halen for their first-ever show. During the chat, he also revealed that the drummer Alex Van Halen warned them.
“The first Autograph gig was opening for Van Halen in Jacksonville, FL on the 1984 tour,” he said. “We had never played a live show, only rehearsals. So, it was scary. We were warned by Alex that opening acts for Van Halen were usually booed off the stage, and not to be offended if we didn’t last out the week. After 48 shows, at the request of RCA records, we left the tour of our own accord to go back to LA and start recording the first album. Van Halen did us a big favor with that tour.”
Autograph opened for Van Halen during their 1984 tour. The show went well, but before the show, the band’s guitarist was forbidden from doing one thing: Two-handed tapping.
“When our tour with Van Halen started, I was asked by their management, ‘Are you Steve Lynch, the one who wrote The Right Touch’ [A 1982 instructional book with the full title The Right Touch: The Art of Hammering Notes with the Right Hand]? I said, ‘Yes, I am,’ The Autograph guitarist Steve Lynch recalled. “I was then aggressively informed, ‘That’s Eddie’s technique; you’re not allowed to play it on the tour – or else.’ I was pissed that I couldn’t play something I had created.”
The problem was later resolved thanks to Eddie Van Halen himself. “So, later on, I confronted Eddie about it, to which he replied, ‘I had no idea they put those restrictions on you. I’ll call the dogs off.’ I graciously thanked him and played whatever I wanted for the rest of the tour. I’ll never know if he was telling the truth, but I don’t care; we hit it off well after that.”
About what inspired him to invent the two-hand tapping technique, the guitarist said that he saw a similar technique from a few different people. He also revealed that his main inspiration was Emmett Chapman, and that he made him ‘immerse’ himself in it.