Eddie Van Halen Career and Net Worth
Eddie Van Halen Career and Net Worth, Who inherited Van Halen’s money? and a lot more interesting facts about the guitarist are covered in this article.
Eddie Van Halen was a Dutch-American guitarist, songwriter, keyboardist, producer and inventor. He has about $100 million in net worth at the time of his death in 2020. He was probably best known to be the founder of the American hard rock band Van Halen with his brother and drummer Alex Van Halen. Eddie goes down arguably as one of the greatest rock guitarist of all time.
Eddie Van Halen Early Life
Eddie Lodewijk Van Halen was born on January, 26, 1955 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He was born to Jan and Eugenia Van Halen. Eddie is the older brother of Alex. His family relocated to Pasadena, California in the early 1962. He and his brother Alex learned how to play the piano at a very young age. Eddie learned most of his art via watching and listening. He virtually switched on instruments and began teaching himself to play the guitar. Whiles in fourth grade, Eddie and his brother formed their first ever band, The Broken Combs with three other boys.
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Eddie Van Halen Career
The brothers formed the Mammoth band in 1972. IN 1974, they changed the name of the band to Van Halen to differentiate it from another band in Los Angeles with the same name. Van Halen became very instrumental in the music scene in Los Angeles in the middle part of the 1970s. Van Halen was handed a recording contract by Warner Bros. in 1977. Their debut album, “Van Halen” was one of the most successful debuts in the annals of history. Eddie released, “Van Halen II” in 1979, “Fair Warning” in 1981. Van Halen released their fourth “Diver Down” in 1982. It occupied the charts in the United States for 65 weeks. Van Halen’s next album was five times platinum within a year after it was released. It was the basis for a number of number one hits.
Eddie Van Halen Beat It
One of Eddie’s lasting legacies to music was not Van Halen. He played the guitar on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”. He got a call from producer Quincy Jones asking if he wanted to play guitar on a new Michael Jackson song. He thought at first it was a prank. He wasn’t unsure how his hard rock guitar style would be welcomed by his audience. He appeared at the studio very unprepared and proposed to improvise after he heard the tune. Eddie took 20 minutes to put things together. He re-arranged some portions of the song. He was in a quandary as to whether Michael would be happy with his re-arrangement- Michael was very happy with the result of Eddie’s re-arrangement. He did the work pro-bono. Eddie did not get any credit for his work on the song- which would have yielded tens of millions in royalties over the period.
Eddie Van Halen Personal Life
Eddie met actress Valerie Bertnelli in 1980 in Shreveport, Louisiana at a “Van Halen” concert. The lovers got married in 1981, in 1991, they welcomed their son Wolfgang. The couple separated in 2001, by 2007, they had finalized their divorce. His acrobatic move on stage caused him several injuries. Eddie underwent hip replacement surgery in 1991. He treated for tongue cancer that removed almost a third of his tongue. He has grappled with drugs and alcohol over the years. Eddie started drinking and smoking at the age of 12. He became addicted to the point that he could not function without alcohol. In 2007, he went to rehab. Who inherited Van Halen’s money? His son did.
