Eddie VanHalen
The tinkerer who turned the fretboard into a two-handed launchpad
Eddie Van Halen
The tinkerer who turned the fretboard into a two-handed launchpad
Edward Van Halen was born in Amsterdam in 1955 to a Dutch jazz musician father and an Indonesian-born mother, and the family emigrated to Pasadena, California, in 1962. He and his older brother Alex trained as classical pianists, and Eddie won local piano competitions as a child despite never learning to read music properly. The British Invasion changed his direction: Alex took up guitar while Eddie played drums, until the brothers swapped instruments. Eddie then spent his teenage years copying Eric Clapton's Cream solos note for note, building the ear that would later let him reinvent everything he heard.
In 1972 the brothers formed a band called Mammoth, which became Van Halen after singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony came aboard. The group ruled the Los Angeles club circuit, caught the attention of Gene Simmons, who financed an early demo, and signed to Warner Bros. in 1977. Their 1978 debut arrived like a thunderclap. The short instrumental Eruption announced a new vocabulary of tapped arpeggios, dive-bombs and harmonics, and within months guitarists everywhere were trying to decode what they had just heard on the radio.
A run of albums through the early 1980s made Van Halen one of the biggest bands in America. In 1982 Eddie dropped by Michael Jackson's sessions and cut the solo on Beat It, a crossover moment he did as a favor. Two years later 1984 delivered Jump, built on an Oberheim synthesizer riff, which became the band's only number-one pop single. When Roth left in 1985, Sammy Hagar stepped in, and albums such as 5150 and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge kept the band at the top, the latter earning a Grammy in 1992.
The later decades brought lineup turmoil, a brief era with Gary Cherone, and serious health battles, including cancer of the tongue and hip replacement surgery. Eddie also became a prolific gear designer, earning patents and launching the Wolfgang guitar and 5150 amplifier lines, later under his own EVH brand with Fender. Van Halen entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, and his son Wolfgang joined on bass for a reunion with Roth that produced A Different Kind of Truth in 2012. Eddie died of a stroke in 2020 after a long fight with cancer, and the band ended with him.
The 10 greatest Eddie Van Halen solos
- 1Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1978
- 2Michael Jackson · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1982
- 3Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1984
- 4Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1979
- 5Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1978
- 6Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1981
- 7Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1981
- 8Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1978
- 9Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1984
- 10Van Halen · solo by Eddie Van Halen · 1991
The sound
Van Halen's playing sounds like joy under pressure. He made two-handed tapping a mainstream technique, using his picking hand to hammer notes high on the neck so arpeggios spilled out faster than any pick could manage. He paired that with whammy-bar dives, pinched and tapped harmonics, and slippery legato runs, yet his rhythm playing was just as distinctive, full of syncopated palm-muted chugs and bluesy double stops. His brown sound, a saturated but warm Marshall tone he chased by lowering the amp's voltage, gave everything a singing sustain, and his loose, almost laughing phrasing kept the fireworks musical rather than mechanical.
- Frankenstrat (guitar) His homemade striped partscaster with a single humbucker, heard all over the early Van Halen records.
- Kramer 5150 (guitar) The Kramer-built superstrat he played through the mid-1980s, during his Kramer endorsement years.
- Ernie Ball/Music Man EVH and Peavey Wolfgang (guitar) Signature models from the 1990s that refined his ideal neck and pickup layout.
- Marshall Super Lead (Plexi) (amp) The heart of the classic brown sound, often run at reduced voltage through a Variac.
- Peavey 5150 / EVH 5150III (amp) High-gain heads he co-designed, first with Peavey and later under the EVH brand with Fender.
- MXR Phase 90 (effect) A subtle swirling phase on many early leads and riffs.
- Floyd Rose tremolo (effect) Locking vibrato that let him dive-bomb without knocking the guitar out of tune.
Covers
- You Really Got Me, originally by The Kinks He turned the Kinks' raw riff into a heavier, fuller stomp and added a blazing solo.
- Ice Cream Man, originally by John Brim Starts as a front-porch acoustic blues before the band plugs in and Eddie tears through it.
- (Oh) Pretty Woman, originally by Roy Orbison A hard-rock remake that kept Orbison's hook while adding crunch and swagger.
- Dancing in the Street, originally by Martha and the Vandellas Rebuilt around a pulsing synthesizer riff with Eddie's guitar layered on top, it sounds far removed from its Motown roots.
- Where Have All the Good Times Gone!, originally by The Kinks A second Kinks tribute, played with a looser, more nostalgic feel.
- A Apolitical Blues, originally by Little Feat A rare slide-guitar moment that showed his roots in the blues.
Timeline
- 1955 Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 1962 Family emigrates to Pasadena, California
- 1972 Forms Mammoth with brother Alex, later renamed Van Halen
- 1977 Van Halen signs with Warner Bros.
- 1978 Debut album Van Halen released, featuring Eruption
- 1982 Records the guitar solo on Michael Jackson's Beat It
- 1984 Jump becomes the band's only number-one pop single
- 1985 Sammy Hagar replaces David Lee Roth
- 2007 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Van Halen
- 2020 Dies in Santa Monica; Van Halen disbands
Facts
- He started out as the family's drummer while his brother Alex played guitar before they traded instruments.
- As a boy he won piano competitions even though he never learned to read music.
- He did not invent two-handed tapping, but he made it a standard technique for rock players.
- He played the Beat It solo for Michael Jackson without being credited as a band member on the record.
- The keyboard riff of Jump was played on an Oberheim synthesizer, not a guitar.
- He held three patents, including one for a fold-out support that lets a guitar stand up while being tapped.
- His black-and-yellow Bumblebee guitar was buried with Pantera's Dimebag Darrell in 2004.
- Guitar World readers voted him the greatest guitarist of all time.
- In 2017 he donated 75 guitars to a charity that supplies instruments to school music programs.
- His son Wolfgang, named after Mozart, became Van Halen's bassist.