Eddie Van Halen is one of the most popular and richest Guitarist who was born on January 26, 1955 in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Musician, songwriter, and producer who co-founded the rock band Van Halen. He was joined in the band by Alex Van Halen, Wolfgang Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony.
Allmusic, an online music guide service, ranked him second behind only Jimi Hendrix as a guitarist.
In February 1962, the Van Halen family moved from the Netherlands to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California. Both Eddie and his older brother, Alex van Halen, are naturalized U.S. citizens. The brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six. They commuted from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys “Stanley” Kalvaitis.
Van Halen revealed in an interview that he has never been able to read music. Instead, he learned from watching and listening. During recitals of Bach or Mozart, he would improvise. From 1964 through 1967, he won first place in the annual piano competition held at Long Beach City College. Afterward, the judges would comment that he had an interesting interpretation of the classical piece. Van Halen’s view was, “What? I thought I was playing it correctly!” However, according to one interview, playing the piano did not prove to be challenging or interesting to him. Consequently, while Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit and began practicing for hours every day.
His father was Dutch and his mother was Indonesian. He married Valerie Bertinelli on April 11, 1981; after their divorce on December 20, 2007, he married Janie Liszewski on June 27, 2009. He had a son named Wolfgang.
