Eddie Van Halen
by Nina Prommer
Title
Eddie Van Halen
Artist
Nina Prommer
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
Eddie Van Halen - Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer.
He is best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the eponymous hard rock band Van Halen. He is often considered as one of the world's greatest guitarists, with Allmusic describing him as "Second to only Jimi Hendrix... undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century." He is ranked 8th in Rolling Stone's 2011 list of the Top 100 guitarists. In 2012, Guitar World's poll named him as the greatest guitarist of all-time.
Born January 26, 1955, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen is a son of clarinetist, saxophonist and pianist father Jan van Halen and mother Eugenia. Eugenia van Halen was originally from Indonesia which was a former Dutch colony; Eugenia was half Dutch and half Indonesian. Edward's middle name "Lodewijk" was derived from 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. In February 1962, the Van Halen family moved to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California.
Eddie and his older brother Alex learned to play the piano as children. The brothers were shuttled from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly man who taught them classical piano. Eddie and Alex hated the commute, but continued as their mother would discipline them if they refused to go. Eddie revealed in an interview that he never could read the music; he learned from watching and listening. During recitals of Bach or Mozart, he would simply wing it. Afterward, the judges would comment that he had an interesting interpretation of the classical piece; Eddie thought, "What? I thought I was playing it correctly!"
Uploaded
December 21st, 2012
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