Van Halen Flags at Half-Mast for the Mighty Rich Osweiler

I met Rich in 2005 when I joined the staff at Acoustic Guitar magazine. We worked in separate departments, but right away he was one of the people I took to most. Like me, he was more of a rocker, and we became fast friends due in part to our mutual love of Van Halen. We stayed in touch off and on after I left AG, and then, within about a year of starting here at Premier Guitar, back in 2010, I ran into Rich as I walked out of the Anaheim Convention Center at the 2011 Winter NAMM show. As soon as I heard he was looking for something new, career-wise, the gears started working in my head. PG's editorial team was in desperate need of more hands, and I've always been a strong believer that knowing someone's character, personality, ethic, and work style is at least as important as anything else. I knew Rich was a stand-up guy, knew his personality would totally jell with our team, and knew his love of bass guitar would be a big boon to Premier Guitar as we expanded our bass coverage—plus, unbeknownst to me till then, he also had a journalism degree.

We brought Rich aboard as soon as we could after that chance meeting, and our team became faster friends with each passing day. Needless to say, despite knowing of some of his recent health issues, we were all devastated when we heard the news of his passing. None of us could believe it.

Everyone at PG loved Rich. He was unflappably positive, professional, kind, charming, dependable, and funny.

Because Rich worked remotely from his home in California, most of my interactions with him over the years have been via phone, Skype, or Slack. Though twice a year we'd get to hang a bit at NAMM. Favorite memories from those hangs include—after one of his many trips to the emergency room left him with a broken toe, foot, and/or ankle—seeing Rich haul ass around the convention center on one of those medical push-scooters. Because he was both kind of an adrenaline junkie and a bit of a klutz, Rich joked that the ER crew at his local hospital knew him by name. Apparently the klutziness subsided when it came to skiing, however. Friends who hit the black-diamond runs with Rich swear he was more agile on skis than on dry ground, fearlessly carving quick, elegant lines in the snow whether it was hard packed or waist deep.