55 Facts About Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex in 1972.

Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in rock history, and was well-known for popularizing the tapping guitar technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard.

Eddie Van Halen was voted number one in a Guitar World Magazine poll for "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" poll.

Van Halen dealt with numerous health issues beginning in the 1990s.

Eddie Van Halen died on October 6,2020, due to complications from throat cancer.

Edward Lodewijk van Halen was born in Amsterdam on January 26,1955, the son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia.

Eddie Van Halen's father was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinettist, and saxophonist who worked for the Dutch Air Force and played with local acts like Jos Cleber and Snip en Snap.

Eddie Van Halen's mother worked as a maid to help make ends meet.

Since Alex and Eddie Van Halen did not speak English as a first language, they were considered "minority" students and experienced bullying by white students.

Eddie Van Halen cited this performance when he was in the fourth grade as key to his desire to become a professional musician.

Eddie Van Halen described supergroup Cream's "I'm So Glad" on the album Goodbye as "mind-blowing".

Eddie Van Halen once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Clapton's solos in the band Cream note for note.

However, neither Paul Stanley nor Eddie Van Halen remember this happening.

Stanley did recall Eddie Van Halen coming down to the studio, being "blown away" by their song "Creatures of the Night", and telling Stanley he wanted to get into playing keyboards.

The band's 1978 album Van Halen reached No 19 on the Billboard pop music charts and was one of rock's most commercially successful debuts, highly regarded as both a heavy metal and hard rock album.

Additionally, Van Halen charted 13 number-one hits in the history of Billboards Mainstream Rock chart; meanwhile, VH1 ranked the band seventh on a list of the top 100 hard rock artists of all time, and, in 2007, Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Individually, Van Halen received acclaim for his guitar work in the band.

Van Halen engaged in several projects outside of his band, including solo work and partnerships with his brother on film soundtracks such as The Wild Life in 1984, Twister 1996, and Sacred Sin in 2006.

In 1982, Eddie Van Halen contributed the guitar solo to "Beat It", for Michael Jackson's album Thriller, which became the biggest selling album of all time.

Eddie Van Halen became involved after The Who guitarist Pete Townshend became unavailable and recommended him.

Eddie Van Halen's first guitar, purchased as a child from Sears and Roebuck, was a Teisco Del Rey.

Eddie Van Halen played the guitar in his elementary school band, The Broken Combs.

Van Halen played many custom-built and heavily modified guitars, especially early in his career.

Eddie Van Halen replaced the original P90 pickup on the bridge with a humbucker to sound like Eric Clapton.

Eddie Van Halen later bought and briefly used a Gibson ES-335, because of its association with Clapton, though he damaged the body while modifying it and it later became cannibalized for parts on numerous other home-build guitar projects.

Eddie Van Halen owned an Ibanez Destroyer that was used extensively on the debut Van Halen album.

Eddie Van Halen only played it for a short time in this state as the modifications changed the tone of the guitar in an unsatisfactory way; he did retain the guitar for the rest of his life.

Van Halen is most associated with the Frankenstrat, a custom guitar he built from parts.

Eddie Van Halen frequently replaced the neck on the guitar, going through a number of different ones through the years, and the pickup configuration was frequently changed.

Eddie Van Halen used a mini-Les Paul guitar for "Little Guitars".

Eddie Van Halen later purchased a second mini-LP guitar, built to slightly different specs, the first being a honey-sunburst with mini-humbuckers, and the second being dark wine-red with a thicker body and full-size humbuckers.

In 1982, Van Halen made his first guitar endorsement by launching the Baretta model with Kramer.

In 1996, Van Halen teamed up with Peavey, where they developed the Peavey EVH Wolfgang; this relationship lasted until 2004, when Van Halen joined forces with Fender, initially releasing the Edward-endorsed Art Series guitars under Fender's Charvel brand and later developing the EVH brand.

Van Halen used a variety of pickups, including 1970s Mighty Mites, which were made by Seymour Duncan and were copies of DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups.

Eddie Van Halen used Gibson PAFs, one of which was rewound by Seymour Duncan in 1978.

Van Halen then began work with Fender, developing the EVH products and brand.

Van Halen was awarded three patents related to guitars: a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position, a tension-adjusting tailpiece, and an ornamental design for a headstock.

Eddie Van Halen wrote "When It's Love" and "Right Now" on keyboards.

Eddie Van Halen is a fine player, of course, and he's the one who named the technique.

George Lynch said in an interview that he and Van Halen saw Harvey Mandel tap at the Starwood in the 1970s.

Van Halen named Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin as an influence, saying in one interview with Guitar World:.

Eddie Van Halen was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought wait a minute, open string.

Until it expired in 2005, Van Halen held a patent for a flip-out support device that attaches to the rear of the electric guitar.

In 1980, Van Halen met actress Valerie Bertinelli at a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Eddie Van Halen's brother Alex Van Halen is an ordained minister, and he officiated Eddie's 2009 wedding and that of his former sister-in-law, Valerie Bertinelli, when she remarried in 2011.

Van Halen struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction throughout his life.

Eddie Van Halen began smoking and drinking at the age of 12, and he stated that he eventually needed alcohol to function.

Eddie Van Halen entered rehabilitation in 2007, and shared in a 2015 interview that he had been sober since 2008.

Van Halen was diagnosed with chronic avascular necrosis in 1995.

Van Halen began receiving treatment for tongue cancer in 2000.

In 2012, Van Halen underwent emergency surgery for a severe bout of diverticulitis.

Van Halen was hospitalized in 2019 after battling throat cancer over the previous five years, and his ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli mentioned a battle with lung cancer in an Instagram post shortly after his death.

In February 2017, Van Halen donated 75 guitars from his personal collection to The Mr Holland's Opus Foundation, a program that provides musical instruments to students in low-income schools.

At the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, Van Halen was honored by several former musicians he worked with.

Wolfgang Van Halen shared several personal photos between him and his father.