10 Facts About Rock Legend Eddie Van Halen Who Has Just Passed Away Due to Cancer at Age 65

Eddie Van Halen. A name that’s largely unknown to a layman like me, but to the rock scene…

He was the true definition of a legend.

And so, it’s with the greatest regret that I present the following news article…

Which, you could say, also doubles as a tribute.

10 Facts About Rock Legend Eddie Van Halen Who Has Just Passed Away Due to Cancer at Age 65

1. Who Is Eddie Van Halen?

Eddie Van Halen, whose full name is Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, was born on 26 January 1955.

He was an American musician who served as the main songwriter and lead guitarist of the lead American rock band Van Halen.

2. Van Halen

The band was founded in 1972 by Eddie, his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Mark Stone and singer David Lee Roth.

They started out at well-known clubs like the Whisky a Go Go, before they were eventually picked up by a major recording label. In 1977, Warner Records proffered the band a recording contract.

Upon release, the band’s debut album Van Halen reached number 19 on the Billboard pop music charts. They would go on to be one of the most successful rock acts of the time by the early 1980s, with their album 1984 attaining five-times platinum a mere year after its release.

In 1992, they won the Grammy award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocals for the album For Unlawful Carnage Knowledge. And in 2019, they stood at 20th on the RIAA list of best-selling artists with 56 million album sales in the United States, and more than 80 million worldwide.

They also recorded 13 number-one hits during the course of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.

In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The band performed its final shows over the span of two nights in 2015 at the Hollywood Bowl.

3. Personal Achievements

Individually, Eddie has received praise for his guitar work in the band.

His 1978 instrumental solo “Eruption” was also voted number 2 in a Guitar’s World’s readers poll of the “100 Greatest Guitar Solos”.

Apart from his band work, he has also participated in several projects including solo work and partnerships with his brother, and has made cameo appearances in music videos and the television series Two and a Half Men.

He is also an avid inventor, having designed three patents related to guitars: a folding prop, a tension-adjusting tailpiece and a design for a headstock.

“Ed’s a once- or twice-in-a-century kind of guy. There’s Hendrix, and there’s Eddie Van Halen,” said friend and guitarist Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains earlier this year.

“Those two guys tilted the world on its axis.”

4. Frankenstein

According to LA Times, Eddie owns a guitar called the Frankenstein, which was supposedly pieced together to his personal specifications in 1975.

It consists of a $50 body, a $75 neck, a single Humbucker pickup and tremolo bar.

The iconic guitar also boasts a red surface which is crisscrossed with black-and-white stripes.

5. Cause Of Death 

Apparently, Eddie has been battling throat cancer over the last five years.

He was hospitalised in 2019.

And on 6 October, the legendary guitarist ultimately fell to the illness.

He was 65 years old at the time of passing.

His death was subsequently confirmed by his son, Wolfgang Van Halen, who proclaimed Eddie to be “the best father I could ever ask for”.

6. Health Problems

Prior to his demise, Eddie was already dealing with a series of health and medical problems.

Having smoked and indulged in alcohol since the age of 12, he consequently struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse for majority of his life span. However, he claimed that he had been sober since 2008, after entering rehabilitation a year before.

He also underwent hip replacement surgery in 1999, after his chronic avascular necrosis became unbearable. In 2000, he started undergoing treatment for tongue cancer.

In 2012, he was operated on for a severe case of diverticulitis, a condition that affects the digestive tract.

7. Personal Life

At the age of 25, Eddie married TV actress Valerie Bertinelli, 21, in a 1981 wedding.

Ten years later, they had a son, Wolfgang, who would go on to become a bass player in the band.

In 2001, the couple separated, due in part to the guitarist’s prevalent drug and alcohol abuse, which also destabilised the band.

Bertinelli filed for divorce in 2005, and the proceedings were finalised in 2007.

In 2008, Eddie proposed to his girlfriend, Janie Liszewski, an actress and stuntwoman.

They married in 2009, with his son and ex-wife in attendance.

8. Not Being Able To Read Music

Despite being an accomplished musician, Eddie Van Halen professed in an interview that he had never been able to read music.

Instead, he simply learned from watching and listening. For instance, whenever recitals of Bach or Mozart occurred, he would improvise.

From the years 1964 to 1967, Eddie won first place in the yearly piano competition conducted at Long Beach City College.

Apparently, playing the piano was not challenging or interesting enough to him, and so he began dabbling with the guitar.

And the rest is, as they say, history.

9. The Broken Combs

It should be noted that Eddie’s first-ever band was actually formed in elementary school, and was called The Broken Combs.

Eddie, alongside his brother and three other boys, performed at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena, when he was in the fourth grade.

It was also during this time that he first felt the ambition to become a professional musician.

10. The American Dream

Van Halen was never truly comfortable with fame, and instead preferred to spend hours alone experimenting with his guitar.

However, in spite of it, he never regretted living the “American Dream”.

In 2015, he discussed his life at an event, and said: “We came here with approximately $50 and a piano, and we didn’t speak the language. Now look where we are. If that’s not the American dream, what is?”

Kudos, Eddie Van Halen, and thank you for everything that you’ve brought to the rock scene.

You were a living legend; now you can rest in peace as an eternal one.