Title: Guitarist,
Van Halen Date of Birth: 26/01/1955
Family: Father: Jan van HalenMother:
Eugenia Van BeersBrother: Alex
Van Halen CV: He and his older brother, Alex, began taking piano lessons at an early age, which planted the seeds for both of the siblings' future musical career. Mesmerized by the British Invasion rock movement, Eddie began playing the drums, while Alex took up guitar. The brothers switched their respective instruments shortly thereafter The Van Halen brothers began playing backyard parties and clubs in the Los Angeles area (mixing covers with originals), and eventually hooked up with singer David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony in the early '70s, as the group Mammoth. It was around this time that Eddie began employing a new skill to his guitar playing, the 'two-handed tap' technique, which would soon become his trademark.With his awesome speed and tasty phrasing, Eddie quickly became the top guitarist on the local music scene, as the group changed their name by the mid-'70s to simply Van Halen. Eddie also began custom building his own guitars, while using the shape of a Fender Stratocaster, he would cover the body of his guitar in strips of tape to create a wild design that would become another trademark of his. In 1978, the band's classic self-titled debut album was released, starting off a string of multi-platinum albums and sold out tours.In addition to playing on Van Halen albums, Ed has also appeared on other artist's recordings -- his most famous being an uncredited solo on Michael Jackson's 1983 monster hit, "Beat It," as well as collaborations with Queen's Brian May (1983's Star Fleet Project) and Roger Waters (the track "Lost Boys Calling" from 1999's The Legend of 1900 soundtrack). On February 2, 2007, it was officially announced on the band's website that David Lee Roth would rejoin Van Halen for their summer tour.On March 8th the official Van Halen website posted a letter from Edward Van Halen stating that Ed was entering rehab and that the tour with Roth had been indefinitely postponed.On August 13th, 2007, 6 months after the initial reunion tour was postponed, it was finally confirmed by Van Halen with Roth at a press conference in Los Angeles that they would start the tour back up again and schedule it starting in September 2007.