Jack White Plays Rockin' 'SNL' Homage To Eddie Van Halen

Mary Papenfuss
·Trends Reporter, HuffPost
Updated ·1 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

White Stripes frontman Jack White dedicated his performance on “Saturday Night Live” to rock legend Eddie Van Halen, who died of cancer Tuesday at the age of 65.

White used a cobalt blue model designed for him by Van Halen as he played “Lazaretto.”

“Eddie was very kind to me and saw to it that this guitar was made for me to my specs,” White wrote on Instagram earlier. “I won’t even insult the man’s talent by trying to play one of his songs tonight. Thanks again, Eddie, for this guitar, and rest in peace sir.”

View this post on Instagram

i thought it could be a nice gesture for me to use this blue eddie van halen model guitar for one of the songs tonight on SNL. the guitar was designed by eddie (with a few customizations i had added). eddie was very kind to me and saw to it that this guitar was made for me to my specs. i wont even insult the man’s talent by trying to play one of his songs tonight. thanks again eddie for this guitar and rest in peace sir.

A post shared by Jack White Live (@officialjackwhitelive) on

As “Saturday Night Live” concluded, the program flashed a clip of Van Halen shredding his guitar while performing with the Robert Cray Band on the show in 1987. Van Halen’s then-wife, Valerie Bertinelli, was hosting and introduced the musicians at the time.

“Rest in peace, Eddie Van Halen,” Saturday’s host Bill Burr said.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.