Van Halen

Van Halen are an American hard & heavy band originally from Pasadena, California. They take their name from guitarist Eddie Van Halen and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen. Their signature style contributed to the rise of many heavy metal bands. Eddie Van Halen's technique in fact inspired many guitarists within that musical movement. Van Halen are also considered among the chief forerunners, and later leading exponents, of the heavy metal subgenre known as pop metal.

The original members were guitarist Eddie Van Halen (born January 26, 1955, Amsterdam, Netherlands – died October 6, 2020, Santa Monica, California, United States), drummer Alex Van Halen (born May 8, 1953, Amsterdam, Netherlands), bassist Michael Anthony (born June 20, 1955, Chicago, Illinois, United States) and singer David Lee Roth (born October 10, 1955, Bloomington, Indiana). Later members included Sammy Hagar (born October 13, 1947, Monterey, California), Gary Cherone (born July 26, 1961, Malden, Massachusetts) and Wolfgang Van Halen (born March 16, 1991, Santa Monica, California).

Introduced to music early on by their father, a jazz musician, and classically trained, Eddie and Alex Van Halen turned to rock music soon after their family emigrated from the Netherlands to Southern California in the 1960s. Over time Eddie, originally a drummer, and Alex, originally a guitarist, switched instruments. A demo funded by Kiss's Gene Simmons led to their self-titled debut album, “Van Halen” (1978), which would go on to sell more than 10 million copies in the US alone. Contributing to its success were the perfect, razor-sharp choruses, instantly singable in the style of the Beach Boys, as well as the solo flights of fretboard acrobat Eddie - frenzied, lightning-fast, far removed from the usual blues clichés, full of Bach-like flourishes yet never academic or heavy-handed. With the hit singles “Jump” and “Panama”, the bestselling “1984” (1984) made the Los Angeles band famous the world over.

Shortly afterward, flamboyant frontman Roth left Van Halen to pursue a solo career. With his replacement, Hagar, the band produced three chart-topping albums between 1986 and 1991, culminating in the Grammy Award-winning "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" (1991). Hagar departed in 1996 and Roth briefly returned, but was replaced by former Extreme singer Gary Cherone.

Cherone, who got a very lukewarm reception from fans, left the band in 1999. The band went without a singer for three years; in the meantime, Roth and Hagar shared headlining duties on a 2002 tour that featured each singer's solo material alongside selections from both eras of Van Halen. The band subsequently released a greatest-hits collection spanning both eras, "The Best of Both Worlds" (2004), and brought Hagar back for a North American tour. In 2006 Anthony left the band and was replaced on bass by Eddie's teenage son, Wolfgang. The following year, with Roth once again on lead vocals, the group embarked on its most successful tour. The album "A Different Kind Of Truth", the first collection of new Van Halen material in over a decade, was released in 2012. The band's second live album, and the first with Roth as frontman, was "Tokyo Dome Live in Concert" (2015).

Through the band's frequent lineup changes, what endured was Eddie's virtuoso technique – in particular, his masterful use of the whammy bar (vibrato) and string bending, and his adaptation of Baroque musical styles – which influenced countless heavy metal guitarists in the 1980s. In 2007 Van Halen were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On October 6, 2020, it was announced that Eddie Van Halen had died at 65, after a long battle with throat cancer. Ten days earlier, the band's original bassist, Mark Stone, had also died of cancer. In a November 2020 interview, Eddie's son Wolfgang confirmed that the band no longer exists, stating that "there can be no Van Halen without Eddie Van Halen".