- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEdward Lodewijk Van Halen
- Nicknames
- Eddie
- Van Halen
- EVH
- The Mozart of Rock Guitar
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Edward Van Halen was a musician who along with his brother Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth, formed the band Van Halen in the early '70s, with Eddie on guitar, Alex on drums, Michael on bass and David on vocals. The band had different members over the years, but the core (brothers Edward and Alex) stuck together.- IMDb Mini Biography By: ilovemy4dogsand4cats
- SpousesJanie Liszewski(June 27, 2009 - October 6, 2020) (his death)Valerie Bertinelli(April 11, 1981 - December 20, 2007) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsEugenia van BeersJan van Halen
- RelativesAlex Van Halen(Sibling)
- Use of the whammy bar
- Use of synthesizers
- Two-hand tapping (a guitar technique that he popularized)
- "Eruption" guitar solo
- Frankenstrat guitar
- When Van Halen became successful, one of the first things Eddie and his brother Alex did with their earnings was to tell their father he could retire and take things easy for the rest of his life.
- October 2012. After an extensive seven-month reader's poll face-off contest (500,000 votes), Guitar World magazine declares: Eddie Van Halen "Greatest Guitarist of All-Time".
- Eddie Van Halen was the younger son of Eugenia (van Beers) and Jan van Halen, and the younger brother of Alex Van Halen. His father was Dutch and his mother was from Rangkasbitung, on the island Java, Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Eugenia was of Indonesian, Dutch, and one eighth Italian, descent. Jan van Halen was an accomplished sax and clarinet musician in his own right. He appeared on clarinet on "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" on the "Diver Down" album (released on April 14, 1982). The family moved to the USA, settling in Pasadena, California, in 1962. The boys spoke no English when he and his family arrived in the USA.
- Was a recovering alcoholic. Eddie's father died of complications from alcoholism, and, reportedly, his paternal grandfather was an alcoholic also.
- One of the tracks from Van Halen's self-titled debut album in 1978 includes Eddie's "Eruption" guitar solo. Eruption originally was intended to be a guitar warm-up exercise. However, one day while in the studio as Eddie was playing Eruption, the recording engineer happened to be recording. The rest is history (although Eddie reportedly didn't like the way it sounded).
- "I really don't feel like I've done s**t yet." When asked by Rolling Stone magazine to describe his greatest accomplishment as a guitarist (sometime around 2003).
- I'm a musician, Dave's a rock star.
- You'd have to be numb or dead not to get excited about 20,000 people screaming.
- I just like songs. I don't mean to sound like a prick or nothin', but I've never really been that much of a fan of bands outside of Cream. And I don't really listen to anything nowadays. The last record I might've bought was Peter Gabriel's "So". With Cream, I was more a fan of their interaction live. You know, they were an example of "What's the difference between jazz and rock & roll? We just play louder." That's all. We get 12 notes. Do what the fuck you want with 'em, you know???
- Eric Clapton is Eric Clapton. Nobody does Clapton better than him. Nobody does Hendrix [Jimi Hendrix] better than Hendrix. Music is an individual form of expression.
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