Eddie Van Halen, the pioneering guitarist behind the hard-rock band Van Halen, has died of throat cancer. He was 65.
TMZ, which broke the news, reported that the guitarist died at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California, Tuesday. His wife, Janie Liszewski, was reportedly by his side, along with Eddie Van Halen’s brother and bandmate Alex Van Halen, as well as Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang, who joined the band as bassist in 2007.
Eddie Van Halen had been dealing with cancer for more than 10 years, and had been traveling to and from Germany to get radiation treatment for the past five years.
TMZ reported that Eddie Van Halen’s condition deteriorated rapidly over the last 72 hours, as the throat cancer spread to his brain and other organs.
Born Edward Lodewijk Van Halen in Amsterdam, the guitarist was raised by a Dutch father and Indonesian mother. In 1962, when he was 7 years old, the family moved to America. The Los Angeles Times noted that Eddie Van Halen’s father, Jan, was a classically trained clarinet and saxophone player, “and passed his obsession onto his sons.”
Eddie and Alex Van Halen formed their own band in Pasadena, California, in 1972, adding bassist Michael Anthony and vocalist David Lee Roth. Adopting the moniker Van Halen, the quartet gained recognition throughout the Los Angeles area during the mid-1970s, and released its debut album, the self-titled “Van Halen,” in 1978.
“In contrast to the shadowy gothic blues of Black Sabbath, or the pagan thunder of Led Zeppelin, the band Van Halen delivered muscular hard rock in Technicolor,” the Los Angeles Times noted. “The group’s sound and image were vivid reflections of its Southern California home, with a lead guitarist in bright colors and a welcoming, good-time grin.”
That debut album eventually sold 10 million copies — thanks to singles like “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “You Really Got Me” and “Jamie’s Cryin’.” The band’s next five albums all went multi-platinum, Variety reported, peaking in 1984 with the band’s lone No. 1 single, “Jump.”
In the midst of his band’s blistering late-’70s/early-’80s run, Eddie Van Halen also wrote and performed the iconic guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s hit 1983 single “Beat It.”
Though the band switched out Roth for vocalist Sammy Hagar in 1985, Van Halen continued to top the charts for another 10 years, with Eddie Van Halen’s explosive, agile guitar work at its center. (The band briefly had Gary Cherone, vocalist for the band Extreme, join Van Halen in the mid-1990s, and both Roth and Hagar rejoined the band at various points.) The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
During his lifetime, Eddie Van Halen cited guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page as his biggest musical inspirations.
NPR noted that Eddie Van Halen dealt with numerous health issues in recent years, such as hip replacement surgery in 1999, tongue cancer during the early 2000s, diverticulitis in 2012, and other maladies from drug and alcohol abuse.
Eddie Van Halen is survived by his second wife, Jane Liszewski, and his son Wolfgang.