Eddie Van Halen, renowned guitarist and lead songwriter of the American rock band Van Halen, passed away after a long battle with cancer. According to TMZ, Van Halen died at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California, Tuesday, Oct. 13, with his wife, Janie, son, Wolfgang, his ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli, and Alex, Van Halen’s brother and drummer for the band. Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang, confirmed the news on Tuesday. 

“I can’t believe I’m having to write this, but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning,” he wrote on Twitter.

Van Halen battled cancer for over a decade. Sources connected to the guitarist said a few days before his death, his health went downhill fast. Doctors found out that his throat cancer spread to his brain and other organs. 

Van Halen was a heavy smoker, but he believed the cancer came from a metal guitar pick he used to hold in his mouth over 20 years ago. 

“I used metal picks, they’re brass and copper, which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer,” he said. The doctors said this is a possibility even though it is just Van Halen’s theory.

Van Halen was a talented guitarist who gained love and respect from millions for his incredible speed and control. Van Halen also co-founded the American rock band Van Halen in 1972 with drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Mark Stone, who was later replaced by Michael Anthony and singer David Lee Roth. The band is known for their energy-filled live performances and are credited with “restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene.” Van Halen had very distinct guitar solos which helped the band get on the charts in the late 1970s with the band’s debut album. A few years later, Van Halen released its sixth album titled, “1984” which included classics such as “Jump” and “Hot For Teacher” and ended up going five-times platinum a year after its release. The band won the 1992 Grammy for the Best Hard Rock Performance for the album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.” Van Halen is among the top 20 best-selling artists of all time, and the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. 

Another skill Van Halen brought to the table of rock music was popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique, which allows rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard. The guitarist also took part in many musical collaborations with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, Michael Jackson, Black Sabbath and even LL Cool J.

Van Halen was also an inventor on three patents related to guitars: a folding prop to support a guitar in a flat position, a tension adjusting tailpiece and an ornamental design for a headstock. 

Van Halen is known for making his own guitar, The Frankenstrat, named after the fictional monster Frankenstein, out of several different guitar parts. Van Halen wanted to combine the sound of a classic Gibson guitar with the physical attributes and tremolo bar functionality of a Fender Stratocaster.

Van Halen is widely considered to be one of the greatest guitar players of all time. At one point in his life, Van Halen actually received a drum set that his brother, Alex desperately wanted. “I never wanted to play guitar,” Eddie said at the National Museum of American History back in 2015. He ended up giving into his brother’s desire for the drums and said, “Go ahead, take my drums. I’ll play your damn guitar.” And the rest was history. 

Image from Inc.com