2020
Eddie Van Halen dies
The Amsterdam-born guitarist who made two-handed tapping a rock staple dies at 65, ending the band that carried his family name.
Eddie Van Halen died of a stroke on October 6, 2020, at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. He was 65. His wife, Janie, his son, Wolfgang, his former wife, Valerie Bertinelli, and his brother and lifelong bandmate, Alex, were with him. Wolfgang shared the news on social media later that day, and fans gathered at places in Pasadena tied to the guitarist’s childhood.
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Amsterdam on January 26, 1955, to a Dutch jazz musician and a Euro-Indonesian mother. The family moved to Pasadena in 1962, arriving, as he later put it, with about $50 and a piano. He and Alex studied classical piano, although Eddie never learned to read music. The brothers soon traded instruments: Alex started on guitar and Eddie on drums until they swapped. In 1972 they formed a band called Mammoth, which became Van Halen after David Lee Roth joined as singer.
Warner signed the group, and its 1978 debut album became one of the most commercially successful first records in rock. On “Eruption,” a short instrumental from that album, Van Halen showed off tapping, a way of playing fast runs with both hands on the fretboard. He did not invent the technique, but he made it famous. He also played on his own homemade guitars, above all the striped “Frankenstrat” he assembled from cheap parts.
Why it matters
Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in rock history. The band he led sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, reached number one with “Jump,” a song built on his keyboard riff, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Outside the band, he played the guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and refused payment for it. His tone, technique, and guitar designs shaped a generation of players.
His death also closed a chapter. In November 2020, Wolfgang said the band would not continue, explaining that there could be no Van Halen without Eddie Van Halen.
Did you know?
Van Halen believed his tongue cancer, diagnosed in 2000, might have come from a habit of holding metal guitar picks in his mouth, in the same spot where the cancer appeared.
