Eddie Van Halen
Who was Eddie Van Halen?
Dutch-American guitarist and co-founder of Van Halen, revolutionized rock guitar playing with his innovative techniques including two-handed tapping.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Eddie Van Halen (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born on January 26, 1955, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. His parents were Jan Van Halen, a Dutch musician, and Eugenia Van Halen. The family moved to the United States in 1962 and settled in Pasadena, California. Here, Eddie and his brother Alex grew up surrounded by music. Both brothers initially trained as classical pianists before shifting to rock music in their teenage years. Eddie went to Marshall Fundamental Secondary School and Pasadena High School and later took courses at Pasadena City College. During these years in Pasadena, the Van Halen brothers started performing in local bands and eventually formed the group named after them.
In 1972, Eddie and Alex Van Halen started the band Van Halen, bringing in vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony. They gained a steady following by tirelessly playing on the Sunset Strip club circuit and eventually signed with Warner Bros. Records. Their debut album, released in 1978, was a commercial and critical hit, showcasing Eddie's guitar skills to the world. The album's opening instrumental track 'Eruption,' which featured Eddie's two-handed tapping technique, is considered one of the most influential guitar performances ever.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Van Halen released several successful albums, such as 'Van Halen II,' 'Women and Children First,' 'Fair Warning,' and 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.' They became hugely popular with '1984,' featuring the number-one single 'Jump,' where Eddie played the well-known synthesizer riff. This showed his range beyond the guitar and helped make Van Halen one of the top-selling rock bands of that time. After David Lee Roth left in 1985, Sammy Hagar became the lead vocalist, and the band continued to produce hits through the late 1980s and 1990s.
Eddie also played one of the most famous guitar solos in pop music on Michael Jackson's 1982 hit 'Beat It' from the album 'Thriller.' He joined the project for free because he was excited about it. Eddie was married to actress Valerie Bertinelli from 1981 until they divorced in 2007, and they had one son, Wolfgang Van Halen, who later became Van Halen's bassist. Eddie married Janie Liszewski in 2009.
In the 1990s, Van Halen faced major health issues, including hip replacement surgery and a long fight with tongue cancer, which he partly blamed on holding metal guitar picks in his mouth for years. Despite these challenges, he kept performing and recording. On October 6, 2020, Eddie Van Halen passed away from a stroke at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, at age 65. He was voted number one in Guitar World Magazine's poll of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and Rolling Stone ranked him fourth on its 2023 list of the 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Before Fame
Eddie Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, where his father Jan was a professional musician who played the clarinet and saxophone. Music was always around at home, and both Eddie and his brother Alex started taking piano lessons when they were young. In 1962, the family moved to Pasadena, California. There, Eddie and Alex got into rock and roll. They first competed over who would play the drums, but eventually, Eddie chose guitar, and Alex took the drums.
As a teenager in Pasadena, Eddie was obsessed with practicing the guitar, often spending hours each day developing his own techniques. He and Alex played in several local bands with different names, including Mammoth. They later added David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony and changed the band's name to Van Halen. Their growing fame in the Los Angeles club scene, especially on the Sunset Strip, caught the attention of producer Ted Templeman and Warner Bros. Records executive Mo Ostin, paving the way for their major label debut.
Key Achievements
- Co-founded Van Halen in 1972, one of the best-selling rock bands in history with over 80 million records sold worldwide.
- Popularized the two-handed tapping guitar technique, fundamentally changing the approach of generations of rock guitarists.
- Ranked number one in Guitar World Magazine's poll of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
- Performed the guitar solo on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It,' one of the most celebrated pop-rock crossover moments of the 1980s.
- Co-wrote and performed the keyboard-driven number-one hit 'Jump' in 1984, demonstrating his range as a multi-instrumentalist.
Did You Know?
- 01.Eddie Van Halen played the guitar solo on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' in approximately one take and reportedly did it for free, without receiving any payment or songwriting credit.
- 02.He built many of his own guitars, called 'Frankenstrats,' by combining parts from different instruments, and painted them himself with distinctive striped designs.
- 03.Eddie initially learned piano as a child and won local classical piano competitions before switching his primary focus to guitar.
- 04.He held guitar picks in his mouth while playing, a habit he later believed contributed to his development of tongue cancer.
- 05.His son Wolfgang Van Halen replaced Michael Anthony as the bassist of Van Halen in 2006, making the band a partial family operation for its final touring years.