Eddie+Van+Halen

home Eddie (Edward) Van Halen was born on January 26, 1955 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He only lived there a short time before moving to Pasadena, California were he grew up. He began musically when him and his brother, Alex, both took classical piana lessons. When they became teenagers they both became less interested in the Piana, s so Eddie took on the guitar, while his brother began learning the drums. Both the two brothers decided to start a band which they called Mammoth. In 1974 when Eddie was only 19, him and his brother hooked up with vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony to form a new band called, 'Van Halen'. Within only a couple the band became greatly famous in the Los Angeles rock scene. The band got a huge break in 1977 when they were playing a small show at a local club and Gene Simmons, the bassist of KISS, just so happened to be there. Gene was intrigued by Eddie Van Halen's guitar style, and by the whole chemistry of the band. Gene Simmons financed their first recording session and soon after the Van Halen signed with Warner bros. In 1978 the band released its first ablum, and with Eddie's unique guitar riffs the album recieved platnum status within six months.

From this point on the band became one of the most profitable bands in the recording industry, releasing three multi-platinum albums in just four years. However, the bands biggest album that made them the extremely popular band they became was released in 1984, with many great singles such as 'Hot for Teacher'. However, in 1985 their singer Roth left the band due to tensions that had formed with him, only to be replaced by Sammy Hagar. After this replacement, Van Halen still managed to put a a numerous amount of extremely successful albums. In 1995, however, there was more tension in the band, this time between Eddie and Sammy Hagar. Sammy Hagar's last album with the band was in 1995. Shortly after this, previous singer David Lee Roth returned to make a reunion. Roth left again after recording only two songs and performing one concert, this time being repaced by Gary Cherlone.

In 1981, Eddie Van Halen married Valerie Bertinelli, an actress, and they had a son in 1990. This marrige lasted 12 years, and Eddie remarried to Janie Liszewski in 2009.

The fact that Van Halen prospered through all of their different vocalists shows to some extent how great Eddie actually was. He argued to be the best rock musician of all time, maybe just falling short of Jimi Hendrix. Either way, Van Halen brought many techniques to great popularity. Guitarists today are seen all over using Eddie Van Halen's techniques and is no doubt one of the greatest pioneers of the guitar. Watch Eddie Van Halen  Video: Eddie Van Halen - Eruption