The guitarist formed one of the most popular rock bands from the 1970's and 1980's with his brother, Alex. He was most well known for his experimentation on the guitar and taking rock music to new places.
Image: Igor Vidyashev/ZUMA Wire/dpa/picture-alliance
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Eddie Van Halen, lead guitarist for rock band Van Halen, died Tuesday following a long battle with cancer. His son, Wolf Van Halen, confirmed the death on Twitter.
"He was the best father I could ever ask for," Wolf Van Halen wrote. "Every moment I've shared with him on and off stage was a gift.
"My heart is broken and I don't think I'll ever fully recover from this loss. I love you so much, Pop."
Wolf played with his father as a bassist in the band. Eddie Van Halen was 65.
Eddie formed the group in 1972 with his brother, Alex Van Halen. The band started as Genesis and did not change its name until 1974. Their self-titled first album, released in 1978, jumped to Number 19 on the Billboard charts, becoming one of the most successful debut albums of the decade.
The album included hits like "Runnin' with the Devil" and Eddie's guitar solo "Eruption." The original line-up, which included bassist Michael Anthony and lead singer David Lee Roth, would release five more albums over the next six years, including "Van Halen II" and "1984."
Their sound grew progressively heavier from the 1970's into the 1980's, churning out hits like "Jump" and "Hot for Teacher," which are still popular on the radio.
The original line-up of Van Halen released several hits over the years, including "Jump" and "Hot for Teacher"Image: mpi09/MediaPunch/picture-alliance
'He was so damn good'
"Eddie put a smile back in rock guitar, at a time when it was all getting a bit brooding. He also scared the hell out of a million guitarists around the world, because he was so damn good. And original," said Joe Satriani, a fellow guitarist and composer, in an interview with Billboard in 2015.
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The original group split in 1984 after tensions erupted within the band following a world tour. Eddie Van Halen remained a member of the group for the rest of his life, along with his brother, Alex.
Beyond the band Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen also contributed to one of the biggest singles of the 1980's, playing a guitar solo in Michael Jackson's "Beat It." He did it for free as a favor to producer Quincy Jones while the rest of the band was out of town.
"It was 20 minutes of my life. I didn't want anything for doing that," Eddie Van Halen told Billboard in 2015.
Metal: From niche music to mass phenomenon
Like all varieties of rock music, metal found its way from the underground to the mainstream over the years.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken
The origins
Like all rock styles, metal has its roots in the blues. The hard rock bands of the 70s, including Led Zeppelin (photo), Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, can certainly be described as the pioneers of the genre. They all played driving drums, psychedelic guitar solos and riff-based songs.
Image: Imago Images/Everett Collection
New wave of British heavy metal
Bands like Motörhead not only delivered hard rock, but also the right image. Long hair, leather clothes, tight jeans, studded bracelets and symbols such as iron crosses, spiked helmets and fantasy creatures found their way into the metal world. With the "new wave of British heavy metal" and its figurehead Iron Maiden (photo), metal moved from the underground into the stadiums.
Image: Imago Images/Mary Evans Archive
Genres and subgenres
Metalheads love family trees. When heavy metal got faster, it was called speed metal. Punk influences led to thrash (pictured above: Slayer singer Tom Araya). There is also death metal, black metal, power metal, Viking metal and many other genres and subgenres. Ten-minute songs? Overtone singing? Bagpipes? Just about everything is allowed in the metal world.
Image: picture-alliance/Eventpress/Darmer
Flirting with pop
Metal first met pop in the 1980s. Bands like Mötley Crüe (photo) or Skid Row wore flashy spandex instead of jeans, jewelry to emphasize their well-defined muscles — and carefully styled their hair with lots of hairspray, which is why these bands were often labeled as "hair metal." Instead of the dark lyrics typical of metal, their songs were mostly about sex or partying.
Image: Imago Images/ZUMA Press/M. Weiss
Mingling with Satanism
Ignited churches and murders in the Norwegian black metal scene caused an international sensation in the 1990s. The entire metal scene, which combines completely different styles and attitudes, was repeatedly taken into custody due to these incidents. Until well into the 2000s, "concerned citizens" called for the ban of certain bands. In this image: black metal band Mayhem, in 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/CITYPRESS 24/T. Dokken
The Big Four
Four of the most successful metal bands of the 80s met regularly in various combinations: Metallica (picture), Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth played concerts and tours together every few years and filled stadiums with tens of thousands of fans. Metallica's "Black Album" from 1991 paved the genre's way into mainstream radio stations with its tender-hearted hit "Nothing Else Matters."
Image: picture-alliance/Jazz Archiv/I. Schiffler
A mass phenomenon
Almost 50 years after it developed, metal culture is well integrated into society. The metal greeting, the sign of the horns, is a hand gesture used by bank employees, elementary school teachers or senior citizens to say: "That rocks!" In some of its subgenres, however, metal still has the drive of its early years — as the subversive, dark heart of rock music.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken
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Van Halen's music has appeared in popular TV shows and movies, including "Glee," "Superbad," and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."
Eddie Van Halen was born in Amsterdam in 1955 and moved to California with his family in 1962.
"We showed up here with the equivalent of $50 and a piano," Eddie Van Halen told the Associated Press (AP) in 2015. "We came halfway around the world without money, without a set job, no place to live and couldn't even speak the language."
He recounted the story at the National Museum of American History in 2015.
