Hey there, friends.  Welcome to Why Music Matters, a podcast where we examine the power and influence that music can wield in our lives.  I’m your host, Jeff Miers. Today, we’ve got a special “Music Nerd” edition of the podcast, featuring a roundtable discussion with two friends of mine, who also happen to be deeply talented musicians with long tenures in the music business.  During a recent episode of Why Music Matters, I spent some time with the great Dweezil Zappa. Naturally, we discussed Dweezil’s ongoing deep-dive into the music of his father, the late composer, bandleader and guitarist supreme Frank Zappa, as well as his April 29th appearance at Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY.  But we also spent an awful lot of time talking about a shared passion - our love for the iconic and dearly missed  Edward Van Halen.  Going down the Van Halen rabbit-hole with Dweezil gave me an idea, so I called my friends Michael Lee Jackson and Geno McManus and invited them to stop by the studio and join me in a free-form chat on all things Van Halen. Michael is a guitarist, songwriter and bandleader with a long history in entertainment law and artist management. Geno is a professional musician who certainly qualifies as one of the hardest-working men in Buffalo show-business. All three of us have been bonding over our love and admiration for Edward Van Halen for a few decades, at this point. And the topic never gets old - for us, at least. So sit back, grab a beverage, and join us as we dig deep, and do our best to get to the heart of Why Van Halen Matters, to us and so many others.