Eddie Van Halen approached Hagar when they played a festival together in 1978 and informed the vocalist that Montrose had been his favorite band, referring to himself as a "Montrose freak". Hagar has said that Eddie had been heavily influenced by Montrose, saying "(N)ot his soloing as much as the chording – yeah, he took some of that big open chord thing Montrose. The big open A, the big open D, the big open E. Everything as open as you could make it, to make it as heavy as possible with one guitar. And that was pretty much Ronnies style, too."