Eddie Van Halen

• Born: January 26, 1955
• Birthplace: Nijmegen, Netherlands
• Died: October 6, 2020
• Place of death: Santa Monica, California

Dutch-born musician

Eddie Van Halen is the cofounder and lead guitarist for the American hard rock band Van Halen. He is widely considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, known for his innovative style that has been copied by countless guitarists after him.

Full name: Edward Lodewijk van Halen

Area of achievement: Music

Early Life

Eddie Van Halen was born Edward Lodewijk van Halen on January 26, 1955, in Nijmegen, Netherlands. His father, Jan, was a Dutch clarinetist, saxophonist, and pianist, and his mother, Eugenia, was originally from the former Dutch colony of Indonesia and was half Dutch and half Indonesian.

In 1962 the van Halens moved to Pasadena, California, to be near some of Eugenia’s family. Upon arriving in the United States, Jan decided to Americanize the family name, changing it to Van Halen. In Pasadena, Jan worked as a janitor at the Masonic Temple, washed dishes at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, and played in wedding bands, while Eugenia cleaned houses. Eddie knew no English when they arrived in the United States. He and his older brother Alex began taking piano lessons at the ages of six and nine, continuing for nearly a decade.

Eddie and Alex formed their first band, the Broken Combs, in elementary school, with Alex playing saxophone and Eddie playing piano. Despite their parents’ emphasis on classical music, Eddie and Alex were drawn to the rock and roll of their new American home by the time they were in junior high school. Reluctantly, their parents bought Alex a guitar while Eddie used the money from his paper route to buy a drum set. Alex found the guitar frustrating and took advantage of Eddie’s delivery schedule to play his drums. Eddie, as an act of revenge, began learning guitar solos on Alex’s guitar. By the time he was twelve, Eddie was studying guitar legend Eric Clapton’s solos from Clapton’s recordings with the Yardbirds and Cream.

Life’s Work

In 1972, the Van Halen brothers formed a trio called Mammoth with Alex on drums, Eddie on guitar and vocals, and friend Mark Stone on bass. They rented their sound equipment from a young singer named David Lee Roth. As Eddie became increasingly frustrated singing the lead, he decided he could save the band money by inviting Roth to join as the lead vocalist in 1974. That same year, bassist Michael Anthony replaced Mark Stone. They soon discovered there was another band named Mammoth based in Los Angeles, so, at Roth’s suggestion, they changed the band’s name to Van Halen.

By 1977, Van Halen was a popular local band, playing night clubs all over California. It was in one of those clubs that Van Halen caught the attention of KISS bassist and cofounder Gene Simmons, who financed their first demo tape. The band signed with Warner Brothers Records in 1977 and released their eponymous debut album in 1978. It was successful and eventually was certified platinum, as were subsequent releases Van Halen II (1979), Women and Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981), and Diver Down (1982). Eddie Van Halen and Roth emerged as the group's primary songwriters and dominant personalities, earning fame for their wild on-stage presence while the band also became known for their hard-partying reputation. However, internal conflicts between the band members grew steadily.

Van Halen's success was closely tied to—and brought greater attention to—Eddie's innovative guitar playing. He was the highest-profile pioneer of the two-handed "tapping" technique, in which both hands are used to fret notes on the fingerboard, enabling extremely fast note runs. Unsatisfied with standard guitars and amplifiers, he continually customized his gear to allow im to achieve the sound and playability he wanted. Notably, he combined the lightweight and ergonomic but durable construction of the Fender Stratocaster guitar with the higher-output humbucking pickups of Gibson guitars, essentially inventing a style that would go on to be mass-produced by many companies. Together with powerful Marshall amplifiers that he modified to provide distortion even lower volumes, he was able to push the boundaries of high-gain rock guitar.

This innovation and popularity led to further successes. In 1982, Eddie was asked by producer Quincy Jones to perform the guitar solo on the song “Beat It” from Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. Though that album and song became best seller, Van Halen did not ask for compensation for providing the solo (and reportedly working on the arrangement as well), viewing it as a minor episode in his life rather than an important contribution to a seminal piece of music. Regardless, the credit helped boost Van Halen's popularity even higher, and the breakthrough to true superstar status was soon to come. The band’s 1984 album, 1984, produced their first set of number-one hits: “Jump,” “Panama,” and “Hot for Teacher.” However, following the release Roth left to pursue a solo career.

Sammy Hagar, who had been the lead singer of the rock band Montrose, was hired to replace Roth in 1985. Van Halen’s music took on a less aggressive, more commercial sound that featured Eddie’s keyboard playing over his virtuosic guitar playing. They released five albums before Hagar left in 1996. After a brief reunion with Roth, former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone joined the band for the poorly received Van Halen III album (1998). Following Cherone’s departure, the band announced they were going on hiatus.

Over the course of his career, Eddie suffered numerous injuries from onstage falls and crashes while performing the acrobatics for which the band became known. As a result, he had hip replacement surgery in 1999. In May 2000, he began treatment for oral cancer and was declared cancer-free the next year.

In 2004, Hagar rejoined the band for a brief reunion tour. In 2007, the band announced a similar reunion tour with Roth; however, this tour was delayed after Eddie entered a rehabilitation center for undisclosed reasons. He would later openly discuss being treated for alcoholism and drug addiction. The tour finally launched in the fall of 2007 with Eddie’s son replacing Anthony as the bassist. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that same year. Rumors persisted through 2009 and 2010 of an album of new material and a supporting tour, but none materialized until 2012, when A Different Kind of Truth was released. The band also continued to tour, though rumors persisted of an essentially nonexistent offstage relationship between Eddie and Roth. Van Halen's contentious relationships with Hagar and Anthony also provided ongoing fodder for the music press as part of the band's lore.

Significance

Eddie Van Halen is one of the foundational performers of virtuosic hard rock and heavy metal guitar styles of the 1980s. His combination of classically grounded technique and innovative performance techniques such as two-handed fretboard tapping made Van Halen one of the most decorated and imitated guitarists of the era. He is regularly regarded alongside Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Steve Vai as one of the most influential guitarists in rock. In addition to his playing, Van Halen's customization of his equipment had a major influence on the electric guitar industry, shaping the market for aftermarket modifications and popularizing the concept of signature models.

Personal Life

Eddie married television actress Valerie Bertinelli, popular for her role on One Day at a Time, on April 11, 1981. Their son, Wolfgang William Van Halen (named for the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), was born March 16, 1991. The couple separated in 2001, and Bertinelli filed for divorce in 2005; it was finalized in 2008. Eddie married his publicist, Janie Liszewski, in 2009.

Bibliography

Christe, Ian. Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 2008. Print. Band history and biography.

Klosterman, Chuck. "Eddie Van Halen on Surviving Addiction, Why He's Still Making Music and What He Really Thinks of David Lee Roth (and Other Past Van Halen Bandmates)." Billboard, June 19, 2015, www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/6605231/eddie-van-halen-addiction-david-lee-roth-touring. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017.

Monk, Noel E., and Joe Layden. Runnin' with the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen. Dey Street Books, 2017.

Prato, Greg. "Eddie Van Halen." AllMusic, 2017, www.allmusic.com/artist/eddie-van-halen-mn0000146544/biography. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017.

Tolinsky, Brad, ed. Guitar World Presents Van Halen. New York: Leonard, 1997. Collection of interviews from the magazine on the band.

Zlozower, Neil, and David Lee Roth. Van Halen: A Visual History 1978–1984. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2008.