Eddie Van Halen from the rock band Van Halen passed away yesterday at the age of 65.
His son Wolfgang confirmed the news in a tweet.
Legends from the music world have been paying tribute
"A man in his rightful place, so happy to be doing what he did." ~ Pete Townshend.
Eddie van Halen 1955-2020. Rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/JOg0vn86An— The Who (@TheWho) October 7, 2020
Shocked to hear of the death of the great Eddie Van Halen.
He was a consummate musician and an extraordinary virtuoso on the guitar.
He leaves a giant footprint and an irreplaceable void.
- Billy Joel
?: Kevin Mazur pic.twitter.com/Y1uAoVp2NE— Billy Joel (@billyjoel) October 7, 2020
Eddie Van Halen was born in Amsterdam in The Netherlands in 1955. When he was 7 the whole family moved to the US to live in Passadena in California. Both he and his brother Alex learned how to play piano from an early age. Although Eddie admitted in later life that he could never read music and would improvise.
The 2 brothers formed their first band, The Broken Combs, when he was in fourth grade. Then later in the early 70's they formed Van Halen, recruiting David Lee Roth and Mark Stone, who was later replaced by Michael Anthony.
They had huge success in the 70's and 80's with their biggest hit being Jump, which has become a rock anthem.
Eddie Van Halen was renowned for his guitar playing and many of his guitar solos appear in the list of the greatest guitar solos of all time. He perfected a style called "tapping" in which he used both his left and right hand on the guitar neck.
He also patented three inventions to do with the guitar, including a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position.
The story behind his guitar solo on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" is one of legend.
The story goes that Eddie was contacted by legendary music producer Quincy Jones but he didn't believe it was really him and put the phone down on him. When he realised that he was not being pranked, Jones asked him to perform a guitar solo on Michael Jackson's Beat it for the Thriller album.
At first Eddie declined as the band had agreed not to do any solo stuff on the side. However the lure of working with Jones and Jackson got him interested and the rest of the band were away at the time!
So he finally agreed to do the solo with three conditions.
One, that he would never be credited for the work as he did not want his band mates to ever find out.
Two, that he would not be paid for the work, all he wanted was a case of beer in return.
And three, that Michael Jackson teach him to dance some day.
The entire process took him only two hours and the rest is history.
Listen below.
