Ten things you probably didn’t know about Eddie Van Halen

Dimapur, Oct. 7 (EMN): Eddie Van Halen was probably one of the most influential guitar players of all time. His influence in the world of Rock and Roll and pop music is one colossal story that the world will continue to remember him for decades to come.

After 20 years of battling cancer, Eddie Van Halen died today at the age of 65 but his music and legacy lives on. Van Halen was one of the biggest rock groups in the 70’s and their music propelled them to rock legends status with hits like “Jump” and “Hot for Teacher.”

 Van Halen’s rise to fame was fuelled by the guitar prowess of Eddie Van Halen with the Rolling Stone magazine putting him at No. 8 in its list of the Top 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Here are ten things that you probably didn’t know about Eddie Van Halen:

1. Eddie Van Halen’s middle name is “Lodewijk” named after the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
2. He is a Dutch immigrant but his mother Eugenia is half-Indonesian.
3. He was inspired by Eric Clapton’s work but his favourite guitar player was Alan Holdsworth, a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer.
4. He started smoking and drinking at the age of 12. He got his first cigarette and first vodka shot from his father.
5. Eddie Van Halen played the iconic solo in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” He also didn’t take any compensation or writing credit for his work on the song.
6. The song “Jump” was Van Halen’s first and only number-one pop hit and also earned a Grammy nomination.
7. One song that he listened to repeatedly while learning to play the guitar was Cream’s “I’m so glad.”
8. Early on in his music career, he would play his solos with his back to the audience because he didn’t want others to steal his solos.
9. He holds two patents: One for a support that allows musicians to hold stringed instruments on their back and the other for a product that quickly changes the tuning of the low E string of a guitar.
10. Eddie van Halen almost died of a PCP overdose back in 1976.

Bonus trivia: Eddie Van Halen donated his iconic black and yellow guitar from Van Halen’s second album cover when he attended the funeral of Dimebag Darrell in 2004. It was Dimebag’s favourite—so much so that he was buried with the guitar beside him.