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Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26, 1955), is a Dutch American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. Van Halen is widely known for his rapid guitar playing, tapping, and high frequency feedback. The All Music Guide has called him "undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century.
Childhood
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen is a son of saxophonist/clarinetist father Jan Van Halen and mother Eugenia (née Van Beers). Eugenia Van Halen was originally from Indonesia. Edward`s middle name was named after composer Ludwig van Beethoven. (Lodewijk is the Dutch version of Ludwig.) Edward continued this naming tradition by naming his son Wolfgang Van Halen after composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Shortly after Edward was born in Amsterdam, the family moved to the city of Nijmegen. In 1962, at the age of seven, Edward moved with his family to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California.
Eddie learned to play the piano as a child and has won many different talent shows. His older brother Alex also played the piano. However, playing the piano did not prove sufficiently engaging — he once said in an interview, "Who wants to sit in front of the piano? That`s boring." Consequently, while Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit and began practicing drumming along with Arty Gomez in Lincoln Heights. After Eddie heard Alex`s performance of the The Surfaris` drum solo in the song "Wipe Out", he grew annoyed that his brother had overtaken his ability and decided to switch and begin learning how to play the electric guitar.
He has stated that he would often walk around at home with his guitar strapped on and unplugged, practicing. It`s said[who?] that he would sit in his room for hours with the door locked as a teen, practicing the guitar. He once claimed[weasel words] that he had learned almost all of Eric Clapton`s solos in the band Cream "note for note" by age 14; in later interviews he stated he could never play the solos precisely, instead he would modify them slightly to suit his style.
In April 1996, in an interview with Guitar World, when asked about how he went from playing his first open A chord to playing "Eruption", Eddie 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. ”
Eddie has many influences, most notably Eric Clapton. He has also acknowledged the influence of Queen guitarist Brian May, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, and fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth, as well as the likes of Montrose guitarist Ronnie Montrose.
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I really don`t feel like I`ve done s**t yet. When asked by Rolling Stone magazine to describe his greatest accomplishment as a guitarist (sometime around 2003).
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