RIP: Eddie Van Halen Passes Away At 65 Years Old
The Legendary Guitar Player Eddie Van Halen has passed away at 65 years old.
Eddie Van Halen has passed away at 65 years old. The Legendary guitar player was battling with throat cancer for several years and, now according to TMZ, the iconic musician unfortunately died.
Eddie Van Halen was battling with throat cancer for several time now and according to TMZ, he died at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica Tuesday. His wife, Janie, was by his side, along with his son, Wolfgang, and Alex, Eddie's brother and drummer.
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, was born in Nimegue, January 26, 1955 and was an American guitarist, composer and music producer.
Eddie was the co-founder of the band Van Halen and had been elected elected the best guitarist of all time, by the Guitar World magazine, and named the 8th best guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Sources told TMZ that Eddie had been in and out of hospital over the past few months - including last November for intestinal issues -- and recently underwent a round of chemo.
Eddie’s son has already shared a heartfelt message on his official Twitter account:
“I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning. He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I’ve shared with him on and off stage was a gift. My heart is broken and I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from this loss.”
See the full tweet by Wolf Van Halen below:
Van Halen were formed in 1972 and became one of the biggest bands ever. Eddie was the guitarist. The lead singer was David Lee Roth.
Eddie Van Halen was born in the Netherlands and moved to California as a child, in 1967.
Amid a family of professional musicians (his parents played at wedding parties) he took piano lessons early on. Soon, however, Eddie would switch piano to play drums and guitar.
In 1974, with vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony (who had sung in a band called Redball Jet) he formed the band Mammoth (whose name would change to Van Halen when they discovered that there was already another band called Mammoth).
With a repertoire that mixed pop-rock, hard-rock covers and some of their own compositions, they quickly became the most popular band on the Los Angeles club circuit. Despite the explosive stage performances of vocalist David Lee Roth the highlight of the band was another.
Eddie Van Halen began to stand out from the rest of the team with his own technique of playing the guitar, hitting the notes on his arm by hammering the strings with both hands and creating techniques that would later become known as tapping, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Van Halen's speed and accuracy were unheard of until then. Eddie Van Halen would soon become one of the most influential modern guitarists.
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