These are dark days indeed, fellow jammers.
Today, at the age of 65, Guitar Pioneer and Rock Legend, EDDIE VAN HALEN, has passed away after a sustained battle with cancer.
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on January 26, 1955. In 1962, his family moved to Pasadena, California. From the age of six, Eddie and his brother Alex Van Halen, started learning piano together, and later adopting other instruments into their fold as well. Learning to improvise on his instruments at an early age while listening to classical music, he would routinely place 1st in Piano competitions between 1964-1967, he carved out his own unique method of playing which led to some of his greatest contributions to the world of guitar.
Eddie Van Halen in 2015, had this to say to www.zocalopublicsquare.org about the american dream;
"We came here with approximately $50 and a piano, and we didn’t speak the language, he said. Now look where we are. “If that’s not the American dream, what is?”
Eddie, along with brother Alex, Vocalist "Diamond" David Lee Roth, and bassist Michael Anthony, would create huge, raucous, guitar-driven anthems. I say guitar-driven, but tune after tune, the rhythm section and vocals were on fire, every night, every album. Michael Anthony locked down some more-than-solid lines on classic Van Halen cuts like Runnin' With The Devil and Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love. Alex Van Halen refused to pull any stops while he was stomping and tearing through And The Cradle Will Rock or Unchained.
This classic line-up would last until after the release of Van Halen's 1984 album, 1984." Vocalist David Lee Roth left the band to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by Montrose lead-singer, Sammy Hagar, singer of classic rock hits Heavy Metal, I Can't Drive 55.
Eddie Van Halen lived a storybook life, with a lot of perilous pitfalls between the beginning and the end. Eddie Van Halen will live forever in our hearts and minds as the man who made famous the guitar solo. the man who made us all Jump.
RIP Eddie.
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Written by Steve Knudsen
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