EDDIE VAN HALEN Dead at 65 After Long Battle With Cancer

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr +

Eddie Van Halen – legendary guitarist and founding member of Van Halen – has passed away at 65 after a decade-long battle with throat cancer. 

His death was first reported by TMZ

“I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning,” wrote his son, Wolfgang Van Halen via Twitter.

He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on stage and off stage was a gift,” Wolf continued. “My heart is broken and I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from this loss.

Long considered one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time, Eddie had been battling cancer for over a decade before his death. TMZ reports he had been flying between the US and Germany for 5 years to get radiation treatment. 

Guiding Van Halen through decades of music and three lead singers, the sound of the 70s was largely defined by Eddie’s distinct and virtuosic talent. Were it not for his titanic influence, hard rock after the late 1970s would have evolved in unimaginably different ways. He may not have invented two-handed tapping, but he perfected the practice and introduced it to a mass audience. 

During his time with Van Halen, the band released 12 studio albums, including the Diamond certified “1984,“which has sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. Other accolades included a Grammy in 1992 for Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocal for their album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

Edward Lodewijk van Halen was born in Nijmegen, Netherlands on January 26th, 1955, a year and half after his older brother Alex. His father Jan was gifted at the clarinet, saxophone and piano. “It was difficult to make money playing his type of music,” Eddie told Rolling Stone in 1995. “So he joined the [Dutch] air-force band, and he played marches. Every morning at six o’clock he’d have to go up there freezing his ass off and play marches. We’d listen to all those march records, and Al and I would parade around the table in the living room and take pots and pans, doing all that kind of stuff. And at night we’d hear him playing classical music downstairs. He loved classical and jazz.

The family emigrated to America when Eddie was eight and settled in Pasadena, California. An infatuation with the Dave Clark Five caused Eddie to take up the drums, while Alex tried his hands at guitar. One fateful day, frustrated that he couldn’t nail the Surfaris’Wipe Out” on the drums, Eddie swapped instruments with Alex and the change stuck.

Van Halen is among the top 20 best-selling artists of all time and the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Rolling Stone magazine put Eddie Van Halen at No. 8 in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists.

Share.

Comments are closed.

error: This content is copyrighted!
25,510Fans
2,046Followers
63,400Subscribers