Yes, Van Halen was great, and was one of the biggest innovators of the guitar in the past 20 years, but you can't totally discredit a whole decade of great musicians. Look at Randy Rhoads, Ynwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, and Vivan Cambell, for example - all were great musicians. And, EVH made tapping popular, but tapping has been around for a long time, it just hadn't been widley used until Van Halen came about. Hell, Pete Townshend and Jeff Beck were using a bit of tapping before Van Halen revolutionized it. That's all I have to say about that...