With my 3rd pick, I am proud to select, for guitar player, Mr Edward Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born
January 26,
1955), is a
Dutch-American guitarist,
keyboardist,
songwriter and
producer most famous for being the lead guitarist and co-founder of the
rock band
Van Halen.
Van Halen was a son of saxophonist Jan Van Halen, his mother Eugenia was from
Java Indonesia. At an early age he moved with his family to the city of
Nijmegen (Netherlands). In 1962 they moved to Pasadena, California. Eddie learned to play the piano as a child, and has won many different talent shows. His older brother Alex also played the piano.
However, playing the piano did not prove sufficiently engaging - he once said in an interview, "Who wants to sit in front of the piano? That's boring." Consequently, whilst Alex began playing the
guitar, Eddie bought a
drum kit and began practicing drumming. After Eddie heard Alex's performance of the
The Surfaris'
drum solo in the song "
Wipe Out", he grew annoyed that his brother had overtaken his ability and decided to switch and begin learning how to play the
electric guitar.
He has stated that he would often walk around at home with his guitar strapped on and unplugged, practicing. It's said that he would sit in his room for hours with the door locked, as a teen practicing the guitar. He once claimed that he had learned almost all of
Eric Clapton's solos in the band
Cream "note for note" by age 14; in later interviews he stated he could never play the solos precisely, instead he would modify them slightly to suit his style.