Eddie Van Halen was honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Saturday night ... as one of the greatest guitar players in the history of music.
The tribute is incredible and shows Eddie's miraculous talent.
Some of the greatest living guitarists, including Slash and Tom Morello, paid tribute to the man who was one of 2 guitarists in competition for the G.O.AT. title -- the other, of course, being Jimi Hendrix.
Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, called Eddie, "The Mozart of our generation. He had the kind of talent that maybe comes around once a century."
Slash said, "His style and his sound were completely unique to him. He had a massive impact on guitar playing."
The sounds emanating from Eddie's guitar were like none heard before. The ferocious sounds hit like a nuclear bomb and were subsequently mimicked by many -- but no one had Eddie's touch.
You gotta watch the video to remember how inspiring Eddie was on the guitar.
As you know by now, Eddie died last month after a long battle with cancer at 65.
The inductees Saturday night were Whitney Houston, Nine Inch Nails, Notorious B.I.G. and T-Rex.
Supermanager Irving Azoff and producer Jon Landau received the Ertegun Award award.
BTW ... Van Halen was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007.