Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, generally known as Eddie Van Halen, (born January 26, 1955 in Nijmegen, Netherlands,) is a virtuoso guitarist, classically-trained pianist, and founding member of the hard rock band Van Halen. His family moved to Pasadena, California in 1962.

Eddie started classical piano training, and won talent competitions as a child. Initially, Eddie's brother Alex Van Halen began playing the guitar, while Eddie played the drums. According to Van Halen lore, while Eddie was delivering newspapers to pay for his drum kit, Alex would practice playing on them. It was when Eddie heard Alex's mastery of the Surfaris drum solo in the song Wipe Out that Eddie decided to switch and begin learning how to play the electric guitar.

Eddie was around age twelve when he first started to learn guitar. He was so committed to playing the guitar, that he played it all day, everyday. Sometimes, he would even skip school to stay at home and practice. In an April, 1996, interview with Guitar World, when asked about how he went from playing his first open G chord, to playing "Eruption", he simply replied " Practice. I used to sit on the edge of my bed with a six-pack of Schlitz Malt talls. My brother would go out at 7 P.M. to party and get laid, and when he'd come back at 3 A.M., I would still be sitting in the same place, playing guitar. I did that for years--I still do that."

In the burgeoning Los Angeles rock scene of mid-1970s, Van Halen's band was called Rat Salade, after a song by Black Sabbath. David Lee Roth suggested calling the band Van Halen, after having been hired by the band as a vocalist to circumvent paying for the use of his P.A. system. After unfulfilled promises by KISS's Gene Simmons to sign Van Halen, they signed with Warner Brothers in 1977, and then released their eponymous debut album on February 8, 1978. It was immediately recognized as a ground-breaking work. Van Halen's innovative, home-spun techniques, and unparalleled rhythmic sensibility influenced generations of guitarists. Van Halen's mantra, "if it sounds good, it is good," renowned "brown sound," and graceful melodicism propelled him to guitar god status around the world. He is especially known for a technique that he popularised: finger tapping. In interviews, Van Halen has credited Jimmy Page's guitar solo from the song "Heartbreaker" (Led Zeppelin II) as the inspiration for developing this techinque.

Van Halen albums such as Fair Warning and Diver Down displayed Eddie's prowess as a piano player, as well as a guitarist. Keyboards featured prominently on the landmark album 1984, arguably the defining rock and roll release of the 1980s.

Edward Van Halen also played a role in getting R&B videos played on MTV. He was called in by Quincy Jones to play guitar on the song Beat It, from Michael Jackson's phenomenal 1982 album, "Thriller". The combination of Jackson's pop sensibilities, Quincy Jones' sleek production, and Van Halen's mind-blowing guitar work melded several genres of music, and helped each to find new fans. Concurrently, Van Halen's song Jump was played in discos, inner-city R&B clubs, and on rock radio.

Van Halen did soundtrack work for movies such as Back To The Future and Wild Life , and has recorded with Brian May, Jeff Porcaro, and Thomas Dolby. He built his trademark red and white striped "Frankenstrat" guitar, (it was originally black and white,) by hand, using an imperfect body and neck picked up at a discount.

The 1990s and early-2000s proved to be a rough time for Van Halen. He battled alcoholism, lost his mother to cancer, was treated for tongue/mouth cancer, had hip replacement surgery, divorced Valerie Bertinelli, (whom he married in 1981,) as his band fired their third lead singer, Gary Cherone.

Van Halen has one son, Wolfgang William Van Halen , born March 16, 1991. He was named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and nicknamed "Wolfie". Wolfie has played at some of his father's concerts in their 2004 reunion tour with Sammy Hagar. Eddie named his line of signature Peavey Guitars after his son, and between 1993 and 2004 was also sponsored by Peavey Electronics to use their 5150 Amplifiers, which he had a part in designing. In 2004 the Peavey company and Eddie split ways, and Eddie launched reissues of his famous "Frankenstrat" guitars with Charvel .

Sources

• April 1996 Guitar World Interview