As a longtime on-air personality at KUPD-FM, Dave Pratt says it’s likely that he interviewed Van Halen more than any other band.

“God, I can’t even tell you how many times,” he says.

“It was a different era. Artists would have relationships with radio stations and the on-air personalities that led their market. It wasn’t as distant. It was very unusual for a group in that era to come to town and not do an interview with the main radio station.”

In the course of all those interviews for the dominant rock station in the Phoenix area, Pratt was able to feel he’d developed an actual friendship with Eddie Van Halen, the revolutionary guitarist who died of cancer Tuesday at the age of 65.

“Just like with anything, repetition creates familiarity,” Pratt says. “These artists, they would come to town and about the 50th time you interview ’em, they get to know you.”

Pratt recalls his last conversation with Van Halen

The last time he spoke to Van Halen was shortly after the DJ had left his gig at KUPD for country radio in 2001 and people were giving him grief for selling out.

Van Halen emailed Pratt a simple message of support.

It just said, “Love you man.”

They spoke by phone after that message, he says.

“And he noted that people once called him a “sellout” for doing a guitar solo with Michael Jackson on “Beat it” and then again for adding synthesizer in the song “Jump.” I remember at the end of the call he wished me luck in country and told me to play “Happy Trails” for him, which is a signature Van Halen cover of a classic western song.”

Van Halen fought a 20-year battle with cancer

Pratt, who launched his own digital radio network, Star Worldwide Networks, in 2010, was deeply saddened by the news that Van Halen had died.

“I mean, everybody knows we lost one of the greats. But quite honestly, it wasn’t completely unexpected. A 20-year battle with cancer is pretty brutal. But you have to give the guy credit for being a warrior.”

The last he managed an actual interview with the guitarist was at the end of the Van Halen 3 days with Gary Cherone in on vocals for David Lee Roth’s replacement, Sammy Hagar.

It was shortly before Van Halen began receiving treatment for tongue cancer.

“After that, it’s not like he hid from the media,” Pratt says.

“But he certainly wasn’t as present as he was before. He would often let other members of the band carry the media interviews for him after that point. But his whole life, he struggled with health issues, from alcoholism to I don’t know how many times he tried to quit smoking to the last 20 years battling with cancer.”

Pratt’s first meeting with Van Halen

Pratt’s first Van Halen interview was 1981 in the doublewide KUPD trailer in the middle of a dirt lot in Guadalupe.

“They thought it was hilarious,” Pratt says.

“Groups used to love that. They’d go to these fancy radio stations all around the nation with beautiful studios. And then they would come to this piece of (expletive) station in Guadalupe.”

This is right around the time station had started blowing up.

“It happened quick when we when we overtook KDKB,” Pratt says. “And during that era, they would just kind of shake their head and go ‘I read about you guys in Rolling Stone. You’re in a trailer?!'”

How Pratt became ‘White Motown’

One of the DJ’s favorite memories of the times he spent with the guitarist was a brief encounter near San Bernardino when Van Halen headlined Heavy Metal Day at the U.S. Festival in 1983.

“I was there specifically for Quiet Riot, to do some onstage stuff and some video stuff for MTV,” he says.

“So after I got through my bit with Quiet Riot, I walked backstage. And there’s Eddie Van Halen, just kind of standing there talking with the Scorpions. And he said, ‘Good job.'”

Then, Van Halen asked the DJ if he played guitar.

When Pratt said, ‘No,’ he asked him, “Do you want to learn?” 

This is Eddie Van Halen offering to teach a DJ how to play guitar.

As Pratt recalls, “I said ‘Not really.’ He said, Well, you are a rock fan. I said, ‘Not really. Motown is my favorite music.’ And for two seconds, and I know that doesn’t seem like a long time. But when Eddie Van Halen is looking at you kind of curious for two seconds, it’s a long time.”

Then, Van Halen punched Matthias Jabs of the Scorpions in the arm and said, “Finally, somebody who’s honest.”

When Van Halen came through Phoenix on the “1984” tour, the guitarist handed Pratt a backstage pass.

“But instead of my name,” he recalls, “it said White Motown. He was laughing.”

That became Van Halen’s name for Pratt for a number of years after that.

“Because nobody, I don’t think, would ever be that honest with him,” Pratt says.

“He was the king. At that time, even now, one of the most famous guitar players ever. He was revolutionary. He was already changing the whole rock sound. And there he was, a guitar hanging around his neck, saying ‘You want to learn?’ Well, who wouldn’t say ‘Yeah, teach me something,’ right?”

Van Halen, the friendliest rock star

Pratt says Van Halen was one of the friendliest rock stars you could ever hope to meet.

“He never was one of my favorite interviews,” he says. 

“But he was always one of my favorite people. And he didn’t have to be the star of interviews. My God. He had David Lee Roth. He had Sammy Hagar, Alex is a nut. Michael Anthony is an outspoken, fun guy.”

That’s not the kind of energy Van Halen brought to interviews.

“Eddie would just kind of be present and be part of it and smile that typical Eddie smile and kind of just hang out, being entertained by all of them,” Pratt says. “He wasn’t separate. Wasn’t distant. He would just kind of sit back and laugh.”

Even in those interviews, he always came across as very warm.

“When I would show up to soundchecks,” Pratt says, “he would always say ‘Have you had something to eat? Everything good? You have everything you need?’ Who does that?”

Although Pratt’s interviews tended to try to get the acts to talk about more general-interest matters than guitar technique, he does recall one conversation with Van Halen about his signature finger-tapping style.

“I do remember him telling me that he never strategically planned that,” he says. “When he would play guitar, he would just have a lot of built-up energy. And it just started to happen. It just felt natural to him. That’s almost spiritual, you know?”

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/10/07/eddie-van-halen-became-one-of-phoenix-dj-dave-pratt-favorite-people/5914567002/