Ugly Kid Joe’s Whitfield Crane recalls Eddie Van Halen giving him socks off his feet during tour
Always pack extra socks for tour…
Images: (Left) Daniel Knighton and (right) Katja Ogrin / Getty
Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe has recalled the time Eddie Van Halen gave him the socks off his own feet during a long touring stint back in the ‘90s.
The rock band joined Van Halen along with Bon Jovi on a European tour in 1995, where the trio of bands were playing at a range of stadium venues. The tour followed Ugly Kid Joe’s 1995 album, Menace To Sobriety.
Appearing on the Life In The Stocks podcast, Crane remembered his biggest pet peeve when touring – having no clean socks. Of course with life on the road, sometimes it’s not always easy to feel clean and tidy.
But as Crane states, a clean pair of socks can make all the difference (via Blabbermouth): “We were on the road in Europe in 1995, and the tour was awesome. It was soccer stadiums and it was mainly Ugly Kid Joe, Van Halen and Bon Jovi who were selling the tickets. Sometimes they would have The Pretenders on it, sometimes Slash would be there.
He later adds, “Socks are an incredible thing to have. Because if you’re just feeling disgusting and you put on a nice pair of clean socks, you feel awesome. You’re, like, ‘All right. This is radical. I’m almost clean.’
“On that tour, we played [Germany’s] Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park [festivals], which there was a bunch of bands on those shows, but all the bands that we were friends with were there – Van Halen was there, Bon Jovi was there. And Eddie Van Halen would come hang out, and his brother would come hang out,” he says.
After specifically asking for clean socks and not receiving any Crane was driving everybody crazy by venting about his sock-fuelled frustrations: “We’re hanging out backstage, and I’m still whinging about socks. Eddie sits next to me and he’s dicking around [on] his guitar. He’s, like, ‘How’s it going, guys?’
“I’m all… No one wants to hear me say socks one more time, but I’m gonna fucking be relentless. And I’m all, ‘Fucking Bon Jovi.’ And Eddie’s, like, ‘What happened? What did he do?’ And I’m, like, ‘He won’t give me socks.’ And Ed goes, ‘What? He won’t give you socks?’ ‘No, man. I asked on the rider.’
Crane remembers, “He goes, ‘Fuck that’, and jumps up on the table, takes off his shoes, pulls his socks off and gives me his socks. And I proceed to take my shoes off, put on Eddie Van Halen’s socks, strap in and go play a rock show.”
Listen to the full podcast episode below: