Eddie Van Halen 1955-2020

Dutch-American musician Eddie Van Halen, renown for his guitar playing, has died of throat cancer at age 65.  He reportedly spent his last moments with his ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli and their son Wolfgang.  He had been battling throat cancer for about six years, and had previously had tongue cancer.

Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born on January 26th, 1955 in Amsterdam, Netherlands to Jan Van Halen and the former Eugenia Van Beers, who was originally from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (which is now Indonesia).  Jan himself was a musician who played clarinet, sax and piano.  The family, which also included their older son Alexander, lived in Nijmegen, Netherlands before emigrating to the United States and settling in Pasadena, California.

During their childhood, Eddie and Alex both took piano lessons.  Eddie eventually started playing drums while Alex started playing guitar, but they later switched.  In 1972, they formed a rock trio with bassist Mark Stone which they called Genesis and later Mammoth (after they learned that there was already a group named Genesis).  Two years later, Stone left the group to be replaced by Michael Anthony, and David Lee Roth joined as lead singer.  The new quartet soon changed its name to Van Halen.

The original Van Halen stayed together until 1985 when Roth left and was replaced by former Montrose singer Sammy Hagar, who had also done some solo work.  Hagar stayed until 1996, and after the band had a brief reunion with Roth, was replaced by Extreme singer Gary Cherone, who lasted until 1999.  After a hiatus, the band reunited with Hagar from 2003 to 2005 and again with Roth in 2007.  In 2006, Mike Anthony left and was replaced on bass by Wolfgang Van Halen.

Besides his legendary guitar playing, Eddie also played keyboards on some Van Halen songs, such as Jump, Love Walks In, and When It's Love.  He also lent his talents to other artists, one noted example being the guitar solo on Michael Jackson's Beat It.

Eddie Van Halen married actress Valerie Bertinelli in 1981 and had one child, Wolfgang, who was born in 1991.  The couple divorced in 2007.  He married actress Janie Liszewski, who had been the band's publicist, in 2009.  He is survived by all of these family members, along with his brother Alex.

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Rock and roll has had numerous great guitar players, but I've come to regard three of them as having changed the way rock guitar is played.  You could say that each was revolutionary in his own time.  In chronological order, they were Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.  Sadly, now I have to use the past tense for all three.

To show what Eddie could do with a guitar, here's a live performance of the instrumental Eruption, which follows a drum intro by Alex.

To hear what Eddie could do on keyboards, listen to the piano, particularly in the intro, on Right Now from Van Halen's album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.  It sounds like there's also an organ in some parts of the song.  At this time, the band included Sammy Hagar on vocals, Mike Anthony on bass, and Alex Van Halen on drums.