Eddie Van Halen, most famously known as the founder of the band Van Halen, that dominated the hard rock scene during the 1970s and 1980s. He belonged to a group of rarified musicians who for once and for all changed the notion of hard-core guitars. He was a guitarist and a singer, nurturing highly profound skills and imaginative efficiency and introduced several unique techniques that soon went forward to become the arsenal of many artists. From finger-tapping to dive bombs on a whammy bar and hammer-ons, he mastered it all. After having formed the band, Van Halen, in 1974 with his brother, he quickly captured the attention of Kiss guitarist Gene Simmons in 1977, who then funded and produced the group’s first recording session. What made the group’s debut title stand out loud was Van’s sheer outstanding skill to balance between pop and heavy metal. Eddie and his brother Alex, along with lead singer David Lee Roth pushed forward the band’s success towards the Top 40. Val Halen was surely one of the greatest and biggest rock & roll band throughout the 90s who attempted to incorporate various new styles and sounds in their compositions. The band’s sixth release in 1984 titled Panama and Jump made them a household name.
Early Years of the legend – how he fell in love with music:
Born on January 26, 1955, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born to Jan van Halen and Eugenia van Halen. His father was also a musician and both he and his brother Alex Van Halen formed the band, Van Halen. He later moved to California with his family in the early 1960s. The brother’s love for music was so intense and genuine, that they formed a band while they were still in Elementary school. During their growing up years, Alex took classical piano lessons and played improvised classical, whereas Eddie proved his supremacy earlier and stood out of the rest. He quickly switched to guitar and his brother Alex took to drums.
Eddie started by forming a band called Genesis but the name soon got changed to Mammoth. Later they asked David Lee Roth to accompany them on their journey. At that time, Jimmy Page had said that Van Halen was the most remarkable kid on the block and then there was no looking back. There was a time when Eddie had issues with David Lee Roth and hence wanted to join hands with Kiss. However, in 1982 after he recorded the riff of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, his outstanding style of guitar play gained him immense respect all around the globe. His tapping technique became tremendously famous. Within a couple of years, the band became highly celebrated backed by Eddie’s signature guitar style and Roth’s significantly powerful vocals, making them renowned in the Los Angeles rock scene.
He started receiving more stardom with the year’s approaches:
The band took its first step towards victory in 1977 when Kiss bassist Gene Simmons happened to discover them at a local club and soon recorded their first recording session after which Van Halen signed up with the Warner Bros. In 1978, the band released its self-titled debut album, featuring their hit single Runnin With the Devil that eclectically combined Eddie’s electric guitar riffs with Roth’s mind splashing and tongue-twisting antics that gave the album its deserved launch fetching it platinum status within the first six months of its release. In the following few years, Van Halen became one of the most profitable bands in the industry and shined with brightness, releasing a trail of multi-platinum albums in quick proximity. Few examples of such projects are 1979’s Van Halen II, 1980s Women and Children First, 1981s Fair Warning, and 1982s Diver Down. But the band was still lagging in terms of its highest achievement which was not much behind. In 1984, the band dropped their classic mega-hits Panama, Jump, and Hot for Teacher accompanied with videos, each exploding MTV.
However, the new millennium appeared to be a difficult phase for Eddie who was laden with various health and personal problems that also included the diagnosis of his caner and getting a divorce. After a gap of a couple of years, the band finally brought out their album in 2012 titled A Different Kind of Truth, which debuted at Number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Albums Chart. The main highlight of this album was Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen.
And this is how the legend has survived his miserable days –
As stardom started pouring in, the tension amongst the group members starting evolving, especially between Roth and the other band members. Soon in 1985, Roth after recording his successful album left the band and the position was replaced by former Montrose frontman Sammy Hagar. However, even after the spit up, Van Halen maintained its consistency and resiliency and went ahead to put out numerous successful albums with Sammy as their frontman. Examples of such projects are in 1986 5150 and 1991 For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Moving forward in the year 1993, Van Halen released its first-ever double-live album titled Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now.
But the tension soon resurfaced during the mid-1990s. Eddie who previously had a brief history of alcohol abuse returned to the scene, but this time soberly and cleanly. The new-sober Eddie and the wild man Sammy often butted heads that finally lead to Hagar’s last Van Halen record titled Balance, released in 1995. However, Hagar returned to join the band in 2004 to accompany their greatest hits release and tour thereafter.
After Hagar’s departure, Roth returned to the scene for a much talked about reunion. But after having recorded only two songs for a super hit album and also after making an appearance with the band at the MTV Music Awards, Roth hurriedly left again and this time, Gary Cherone replaced him. Gary Cherone was formerly associated with the heavy metal band Extreme. Cherone made his debut with the band Van Halen III that got released in 1998, but due to its low sales count, he ensures his exit.
Eddie Van Halen – The one and only to set the milestone for music enthusiasts:
Van Halen’s album 1984 was amongst the band’s best-performing album both in terms of charting and sales figure. It fleeted to the Number 1 position On the Billboard Pop chart and even spawned to achieve Diamond status in the U.S. Roth emerged on the scene once again and the band released their first record with Roth after 1984. In May 2915, the band went ahead to open the Billboard Music Awards with Roth, who performed their old-hit Panama. It was during this time when the band was at the zenith of its success. Eddie Van Halen had achieved the American Music Award for being the Favorite Heavy Metal/ Hard Rock Album in 1992 for the album named For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Moreover, their song Right Now that was featured in the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge won three MTV Video Music Awards in the year 1992 along with the award for being the Video of the Year. Eddie Van Halen was titled as the best and the greatest guitarist of all times in 2012 by Guitar World.
A Life Story that led him through every possible as well as impossible path:
Eddie Van Halen was married to actress Valerie Bertinelli in 1981 and they both have a son named Wolfgang Van Halen, who was born in 1990. In 2002, the couple announced the news of their separation and approached toward their divorce, four years later. After nine years, Van Halen married his girlfriend of three years named Janie Liszewski in 2009. His son Wolfgang who is also a musician has been named after the greatest composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Following his father’s footsteps, he is also known for his guitar riffs.
At the age of 12, Eddie was handed his first drink and cigarette in a quite misguided effort to calm his senses by his father, which he started in-taking continually depending on the account. By the mid-70s, Eddie’s drinking problem fueled up and at that point, he was already using cocaine. By 1977, the drug became the staple of the band’s daily routine and then there was one such day when Eddie accidentally snorted PCP, which he thought was coke, and suffered from a near-fatal overdose, ending up in a hospital.
In January 2000, Eddie was brought to notice about a bump that he felt on his tongue that was soon diagnosed as cancer. He went ahead through conventional therapy procedures including chemo. Even though the iconic guitarist came up with an interesting theory stating the electromagnetic radiation from the metal guitars as the reason behind his tongue cancer but according to the doctors, the heavy intake of cigarettes has led to this scenario. Later, Eddie, has one-third of his tongue removed.
After this, for the very first time in over 33 years, Eddie Van Halen quitted smoking, which lasted for about a month. As it says, old habits die hard and soon enough his habit returned and he was soon puffing in front of all. All this while, his wife Bertinelli remained the rock he needed on his support but seeing his suicidal behavior, it was a breaking point for her as well.
There was an incident when Eddie after a couple of weeks was caught with cocaine that he had carried on a plane while he was traveling with their ten-year-old son Wolfgang, and that was the point when she was completely done with the marriage. Post their divorce after a couple of years, Eddie welcomed the most painful and dreadful phase of his life as he sunk considerably. His habits had greatly impacted his musicianship and he was so utterly wasted that everyone started fearing for his life.
Moment of grim for all of us –
On October 6, 2020, Eddie Van Halen died of throat cancer at the age of 65 in Santa Monica, California, surrounded by his family. During his end months, Eddie heard from a lot of old friends. Sammy Hagar who had departed long back got in touch with him and they both reconciled.