Eddie Van Helen, one of Rock & Roll’s singular and most gifted guitarists, has died. He was 65 years old.
Wolf, son of Van Halen, confirmed the news on Tuesday.
“I can’t believe I had to write this, but my father, Edward Lodevic van Halen, lost his long and fierce battle with cancer this morning,” he wrote on Twitter.
Wolf continues, “He was the best dad I could ever ask for. Every moment I shared with him on stage and on stage was a gift,” Wolf continued. “My heart is broken and I don’t think I will ever recover from this loss.”
Van Helen’s former manager tells everyone in a new memoir
“I love you so much, Pop,” he concluded.
(Left to right) Band Van Helen: Eddie Van Helen, Michael Anthony, Alex Van Helen and David Lee Roth.
(Getty Images by Lynn Goldsmith / Corbis / VCG)
Eddie Van Halen’s ex-wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, broke his son’s message and shared it on his own account with heart emojis. The couple had been married for 20 years.
Van Halen died Tuesday at Santa Monica Hospital, according to TMZ, citing sources. Wolf, his brother Alex and wife Jenny were with him.
Van Helen told Billboard Magazine in 2015 that she had a third of her tongue removed due to cancer that had spread to her esophagus.
“I used metal picks – it’s brass and copper – which I always keep in my mouth, where I’ve got cancer of the tongue,” he said at the time. “Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that is full of electromagnetic radiation. So that’s a principle. I mean I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot more. But at the same time, my lungs are completely clear. This is just my own theory, but doctors say it is possible. “
File – 5 In this 2004 August, 2004 file photo, Van Helen presents guitarist Eddie Van Helen in Phoenix. (AP Photo / Tom Hood, file)
Van Helen was a guitar virtuoso whose chaotic speed, control and innovation pushed his band Van Helen into the largest group of hard rock, fueled in obscure fiery solitude in Michael Jackson’s hit “Beat It” and elevated to the status of rock god.
With his solo solo, Eddie Van Helen was the engine behind the ultimate California party band and helped knock Dico out of Charco, beginning with his band’s self-titled album in the late 1970s and then the blockbuster record “1984,” which included the classic “Straight”. Go to “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher.”
Van Halen is one of 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 ranked Eddie Van Helen 8th on its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists.
Van Halen’s guitarist Eddie Van Halen, pictured here in September 2015, has died after a battle with cancer, his son Wolf confirmed on Tuesday.
(Photo by Daniel Knighton / Getty Images)
Born in the Netherlands and raised in Casifina Pasadena, Van Helen began her own group in 1974 with her brother Alex, drums, bass player Michael Anthony, and the great lead singer David Lee Roth.
They were members of a rival high school band and then attended together with City College Ledge in Pasde. They teamed up to form the Mammoth Band, but later changed to Van Halen after discovering another band called the Mammoth.
His 1978 release “Van Halen” opened with the acclaimed “Runin” with the Devil “and then Eddie Van Halen showed off his amazing skills in the next song,” Crack “, a 1:42 minute guitar solo whose sound spreads and moves on. A perverted bird. The album also included covers for Kinks’ “You’ve Really Mee” and “Not Talkin” ‘Bout Love’.
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Van Halen’s annual timetable – “Van Halen II” (1979), “Women and Children First” (1980), “Fair Warning” (1981) and “Diver Down” (1982) – commemorated “1984,” which is a Billboard 200 album. Came in at No. 2 in the chart. (Photo by Lynn Goldsmith / Corbis / VCG by Getty Images)
Mike McCrade of Pearl Jam told Rolling Stone Magazine that hearing Van Helen’s “burst” was like hearing Mozart for the first time. “He gets sounds that aren’t necessary for the sounds of a guitar – a lot of the harmonics, the texture that’s caused by how he chooses.”
Van Halen’s annual timetable – “Van Halen II” (1979), “Women and Children First” (1980), “Fair Warning” (1981) and “Diver Down” (1982) – commemorated “1984,” which is a Billboard 200 album. Hit No. 2 on the charts (just behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”). Rolling Stone was ranked “1984” at number 81 on the list of the 100 Greatest Albums of 1980.
In a February 2020 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, lead singer Roth, who made the final trip with Van Halen in 2015 after being replaced for a time by Wallace Sami Hagar, disagreed with Eddie Van Helen’s condition. “You know what I know,” he told the paper. “Ed, God bless him, he will have some time ahead, but getting out on the road is a forgiving act. It kills people. “
Recalling the band’s beginning, Roth said, “I remember the days when we would stand around and say let’s take a cigarette. ‘And we did it: four people have one cigarette. I remember those days. They go fast, so have fun when you’re in them. “
The Associated Press contributes to this report
