(WSJ) Eddie Van Halen, whose pressing inventiveness lofted him among the all-time elite guitarists and whose life epitomized both the aspirational American dream and the rough-and-tumble of rock ’n’ roll, died Tuesday after battling cancer. He was 65 years old.
A self-taught musician, Mr. Van Halen popularized the two-handed tapping technique of playing with both hands on the neck of the guitar. The style, which showcased how blindingly fast he could pick out a melody, helped make “Eruption” what is widely considered among the greatest guitar solos of all time. With his brother he formed the basis of Van Halen, the band that made hard rock’s comeback in the 1980s.
“Every moment I’ve shared with him on and offstage was a gift,” said his son, Wolfgang Van Halen.
The group’s singular sound and profile earned it a 2007 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In honoring Van Halen, the institution said the group’s “jarring stage presence and virtuosic skill kicked the American rock scene into high gear.”
Born in Amsterdam to a classically trained clarinetist, saxophonist and pianist father, brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen got an early taste of stage life, playing piano with the band aboard the ship on which the family immigrated to the U.S. Eddie, then 7 years old, had started learning piano at age 6, and continued lessons after the family settled in Pasadena, Calif. He placed in local competitions, but never read music, instead learning by watching and listening.
He quit and began playing the drums; his brother, Alex, the guitar. According to Mr. Van Halen, he would find Alex playing his drums and thought his brother more talented.
“I said, ‘OK, take my drums I’ll play your damn guitar,’ ” he said in a 2015 interview at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
The boys formed their first band, the Broken Combs, when Mr. Van Halen was in fourth grade, playing in their elementary school’s cafeteria. Eventually upgrading to backyard party gigs, the brothers changed their name to the Trojan Rubber Co. In 1972, they formed a band called Genesis, which later became Mammoth before finally adopting the Van Halen name in 1974 with the addition of David Lee Roth on vocals and bassist Michael Anthony.
Initially playing pop, rock and disco covers, the band rose to popularity in the Los Angeles club scene through the mid-1970s, with original songs and Mr. Van Halen’s avant-garde technique. In 1977, Warner Bros. Records executive Ted Templeman saw the group perform at the Starwood in Hollywood.
In his memoir, Mr. Templeman recalled the band performing as if it were in an arena rather than a nearly empty club. While Mr. Roth’s vocals didn’t impress him, “at that moment that didn’t matter much, because their guitar player blew my mind,” he wrote.
“Right out of the gate I was just knocked out by Ed Van Halen. It’s weird to say this, but encountering him was almost like falling head over heels in love with a girl on a first date. I was so dazzled. I had never been as impressed with a musician as I was with him that night.”
Van Halen signed on with the label and released its self-titled album the next year. The smashing heavy-metal, hard-rock debut featured an adaptation of “You Really Got Me” as the lead single, and classics including “Eruption” and “Runnin’ With the Devil.”
What became “Eruption” was a warm-up exercise Mr. Van Halen was playing in one of the final sessions in the studio. Mr. Templeman ordered it recorded right away; for years, Mr. Van Halen told him if he would let him play it a second time he could have done it better.
“Van Halen II” in 1978 featured the band’s first top 20 U.S. hit, “Dance the Night Away.” The band continued touring and recording, with “Women and Children First” in 1980, followed by “Fair Warning” in 1981 and “Diver Down” in 1982.
Mr. Van Halen picked up work outside the band, playing the guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and composing music for “The Wild Life” film.
The smash album “1984,” which yielded “Jump”—the band’s only No. 1 single—“Panama” and “Hot for Teacher,” was recorded in Mr. Van Halen’s newly built 5150 Studios and cemented Van Halen as superstars. It was the last album with the band’s original lineup.
Tensions over control of the band’s sound and image, particularly between Messrs. Van Halen and Roth, had been simmering for years but came to a head during the “1984” tour, where each member played separate solo sets.
Mr. Roth was fired and succeeded by Montrose lead singer Sammy Hagar. The 1986 album “5150” became the band’s first to reach No. 1, with “Why Can’t This Be Love” and “Dreams.” Despite the success of three other albums over the next decade, tensions flared with Mr. Hagar and Mr. Roth was reunited temporarily with Van Halen to present at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996. The band’s compilation album hit No. 1 that year, but Mr. Van Halen still had differences with Mr. Roth, and Gary Cherone of Boston rock group Extreme was granted the lead singing gig.
“Van Halen III,” a more experimental album with longer ballads, produced lackluster sales by the band’s standards. When Mr. Cherone left in 1999, rumors about a reunion with Mr. Roth swirled again, but the band took a hiatus and was dropped from Warner Bros.
Mr. Van Halen, who suffered injuries from onstage acrobatics, had hip-replacement surgery in 1999. The next year he began treatment for cancer, ultimately having one-third of his tongue removed. He announced his recovery in 2002.
In 2003, the band reunited with Mr. Hagar for a new compilation release and tour, and then rumors continued about a reunion with Mr. Roth.
Mr. Van Halen, who said he started drinking and smoking cigarettes when he was 12 years old, later said that by 2004 he was struggling with alcoholism. After playing along with his father during some live shows, Wolfgang Van Halen succeeded Mr. Anthony on bass in 2006, a decision that sparked controversy, particularly when Mr. Anthony’s image was later temporarily removed from album art on the band’s website. The next year Mr. Van Halen said he had completed rehab, and after much speculation, the band, with Mr. Roth, began touring that fall.
Van Halen signed to Interscope Records in 2011. “A Different Kind of Truth”—the band’s first studio album in 14 years, its first with Mr. Roth in 28 years, and its first with Wolfgang on bass—was released the next year to critical and commercial success, featuring reworked demos the then-16-year-old Wolfgang had found digging through archives.
An arena tour was cut short that year and Mr. Van Halen had surgery for diverticulitis.
A legacy of the band includes its contract riders—requests set as criteria for performance at a venue—particularly power and stage-construction requirements. Van Halen required a bowl of M&M’s to be placed in the band’s dressing room, with the brown candies removed—a test to make sure the contract was honored.
In addition to his brother and son, Mr. Van Halen is survived by his wife, Janie.
His marriage to actress Valerie Bertinelli, Wolfgang Van Halen’s mother, ended in divorce in 2007.
Mr. Van Halen’s achievements were largely in sound, dissecting, combining and reconstructing guitars and amps to create new pitches and tones—a process sometimes resulting in blowing out the power, or electrocution.
“I’m always pushing things past where they’re supposed to be,” he said in the 2015 interview.
A copy of the “Frankenstrat,” which he created from Gibson and Fender guitars and then finished with a red-black-and-white-stripe painted design, remains with the Smithsonian.
Sounds that made it onto records—expertly mimicking animals and machines—were the result of years of experimentation, he said.
“I’d never seen a rig quite like Ed’s,” Mr. Templeman recalled. “His pedal board consisted of a little piece of plywood with his effects and cables duct-taped to it. It looked like it was jerry-rigged together with spit and baling wire. But of course when he plugged in, turned up the volume and stepped on those different pedals, it all sounded fantastic.”
When he played, though, it was without airs.
Over the years, Mr. Van Halen insisted he didn’t listen to music other than what he was currently making, even saying he preferred the sound of the car’s motor to the radio. While at times praising the work of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, he cited his own father—who played clarinet on “Big Bad Bill” on the “Diver Down” album—as inspiration.
“Coming here with approximately $50 and a piano, and not being able to speak the language, going through everything to get to where we are,” he said. “If that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is.”
As for the era of copycats that his prowess on the electric guitar spawned: At first, it was annoying, he said. “Then I started thinking, ‘Oh, God, what did I start?’ ”
Source: Wall Street Journal by Anne Steele
