Rock Legend Eddie Van Halen Dies at 65

Rock Legend Eddie Van Halen Dies at 65

Rock and roll legend Eddie Van Halen has died at 65. 

Van Halen was the main songwriter and founder—with brother and drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Mark Stone, and singer David Lee Roth—of the band Van Halen.

Variety writes:

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Van Halen, whose innovative and explosive guitar playing kept the hard rock band that bore his family name cemented to the top of the album charts for two decades, died on Tuesday morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.

Van Halen’s son Wolf announced the news. “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,” Wolf Van Halen tweeted.

In 2012, Van Halen was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine reader's poll for "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

About Van Halen

Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, “Edward Lodewijk van Halen” moved to the United States with his family in 1962. 

He hand his brother Alex formed a band in 1972, changing its name to Van Halen in 1974. 

The band won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.

As of March 2019, the band was 20th on the RIAA list of best-selling artists in the United States; it had sold 56 million albums in the States and more than 80 million worldwide.

Van Halen charted 13 number-one hits in the history of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. VH1 ranked the band seventh on a list of the top 100 hard rock artists of all time.

In January 2007, Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Photo: CreativeCommons/Flickr/Carl Lender

https://www.flickr.com/photos/clender/7239011528/in/photostream/