Eddie Van Halen, the Hall of Fame guitarist who revolutionized the instrument and influenced countless musicians, has died at the age of 65
Even through Montrose’s Sammy Hagar replaced original frontman David Lee Roth in 1985, Van Halen ruled the rock world from their explosive self-titled LP in 1978 — arguably the most perfect debut by any group in rock history — all to way to the mid-1990s when they parted ways with Hagar.
The 2000s were marked by battles with alcohol, erratic public behavior and nostalgic reunion tours with Hagar and Roth, but very little in the way of new music. Still, no matter who was fronting the group or when they had their last hit, fans never stopped flocking to Van Halen concerts to worship at the altar of Eddie Van Halen. “I suppose what bothers me is that often the kids don’t even notice when I’m bad,” he toldEdward 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 toldin 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. The duo formed a series of bands in the early 1970s with names like the Broken Combs, the Trjoban Rubber Co and Genesis, but never got significant traction until they came across the charismatic son of a wealthy doctor named David Lee Roth. “Roth was the only guy who had a PA,” Eddie said. “We were renting his PA every weekend for $35 and getting $50 for the gigs. So it was cheaper to get him in the band.” With Roth at the helm, Van Halen — which also featured Michael Anthony on bass — became one of the most popular groups on the Pasadena rock circuit, playing backyard parties, strip clubs and wherever else they could find. Their repertoire consisted largely of covers, but they slowly began to assemble a collection of original tunes like “Runnin’ With the Devil” and “Somebody Get me a Doctor.” Kiss frontman Gene Simmons recorded a demo with them and tried to land them a deal, but they wouldn’t sign anything until Mo Ostin of Warner Bros. caught one of their gigs and gave them a record contact in 1977. Years of relentless road work had turned the group into a tight unit, which producer Ted Templeman expertly captured on tape. The guitar solo “Eruption” remains a standout for Eddie’s jaw-dropping chops, while their cover of “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks shows their ability to make even the most familiar rock standard fresh and exciting. But it’s the group’s original material such as “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love” and “Jamie’s Cryin'” that helped the album reach Number 19 on the Billboard 200 and get them a stint on the road opening up for Black Sabbath. “Just three years ago I was … up front with the rest of the kids to see Aerosmith,” Eddie toldin 1980. “Then a year later we’re playing with them. That boggled me to death. I mean, I knew I’d always play guitar, but I had no idea I’d be in the position I’m in now.”and the hit singles “Dance The Night Away” and “Beautiful Girls.” The next five years were a blur of sold out arenas, wild parties and smash albums, even if they didn’t land a ton of big radio hits and many of their singles were covers like “Dancing In The Street” and “ Pretty Woman,” which Eddie later explained were a result of tension within the band.Rolling Stone . “The first thing I did up here was ‘Jump,’ and they didn’t like it. I said, ‘Take it or leave it.’ I was getting sick of their ideas of what was commercial. That’s how we ended up doing all those covers on [1982’s]The band may have been descending towards chaos, but Eddie found peace offstage when he marriedactress Valerie Bertinelli in 1981. The guitarist said that Roth was unhappy with the marriage since it interfered with the group’s reputation as wild, single partiers. “I remember once he said, ‘Tell your old lady not to come to Detroit, because we’re doing a Life magazine interview,'” Eddie toldin 1986. “He was afraid they were going to corner her and ask her some real things. So she ended up not coming to the show. I put up with it. But it hurt my wife. How do you think she felt? She was a newcomer, and not to be accepted in that way hurt her.”, Eddie insisted they record “Jump” and incorporate synthesizers into other tracks. The result was the smash 1984 turned that them into MTV superstars as videos for “Jump,” “Panama” and “Hot For Teacher” went into heavy rotation and the album began selling by the millions, reaching Number 2 on the Billboard 200. The tour took them all over the world, but Eddie and Roth were barely speaking offstage. When the tour ended, Roth left the group and began working on a solo album. “I cried,” Eddie told, “then I called my brother and told him the motherfucker quit. I felt like I’d put up with this guy’s shit for all these years just for him to walk.” Eddie briefly considered cutting a solo album with a parade of guest singers like Phil Collins, Joe Cocker and Pete Townshend, but he quickly realized the band should simply carry on with a new singer. Ferrari dealer Claudio Zampolli arranged a meeting with former Montrose frontman Sammy Hagar, who’d just had a huge solo hit with “I Can’t Drive 55,” and they tried jamming together. “There was such chemistry and it was so exciting,” Hagar toldin 2016. “We played until midnight, about 12 hours without stopping .I went to sleep, woke up the next morning and went, ‘Wow, I’m joining that band.'” Warner Bros. were unsure about the change and suggested they consider calling the band Van Hagar to separate it from what came before. “It would have been interesting,” said Hagar. “Looking back now, it’s sort of a way to divide the two eras up. But we were so fearless when we realized what we could all do together.” Anyone that doubted Van Halen’s ability to carry on without Roth were proved wrong in March 1986 whenhit shelves and became their first Number One album. That run at the top of the charts continued with 1986’s
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