Eddie Van Halen

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Sammy Hagar onstage

"Since you’ve been gone, it’s not the same": Listen to the song Sammy Hagar finished after being visited by Eddie Van Halen in a dream

By Fraser Lewry published

The release of Sammy Hagar's Encore, Thank You, Goodnight comes ahead of his upcoming Best Of All Worlds residency in Las Vegas

Van Halen

Alex Van Halen reveals that David Lee Roth asked Eddie Van Halen to play fewer guitar solos: "He couldn’t handle the fact that Eddie was getting more attention than he was"

By Liz Scarlett published

In his new memoire, Brothers, Alex Van Halen says that David Lee Roth was "convinced he was going to be a movie star" so didn't want the spotlight to shine too long on anyone else

Alex and Eddie Van Halen in 1985

Alex Van Halen shares the last song he wrote with late brother Eddie Van Halen

By Fraser Lewry published

Unfinished / Between Us Two is an epic, six-minute instrumental

Alex and Eddie Van Halen on the Jimmy Kimmel show in 2015, and Robert Plant onstage

"You’re gonna think I’m out of my mind": Alex Van Halen is considering finishing unreleased Van Halen songs, with Robert Plant adding vocals and guitar solos generated by artificial intelligence

By Fraser Lewry published

Alex Van Halen has approached the makers of ChatGPT to explore the possibility of creating new guitar solos

Van Halen

"Outliving my little brother, this just wasn't the plan. As the older brother, I was supposed to die first. Same as always, Ed, butting in line": Listen to Alex Van Halen's emotional tribute for Eddie Van Halen from his new audiobook, Brothers

By Liz Scarlett published

Alex Van Halen makes a beautiful tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen in his new audiobook, Brothers, which is also set to feature a previously unreleased song composed by the pair

Sammy Hagar and Joe Satriani onstage

"A lot of people are going, 'Joe, he doesn't play like Eddie.' I know that – but he can": Sammy Hagar on why Joe Satriani was the only man for his Eddie Van Halen job

By Gary Graff published

Exclusive: Sammy Hagar on why Joe Satriani is a guitarist in a million

Van Halen, 2004

"He did horrible things to people. He treated people so bad. He was a complete raving maniac." In 2016, Sammy Hagar talked candidly about his fears that Eddie Van Halen was going to die during Van Halen's 2004 reunion tour

By Classic Rock last updated

"When I saw those demons take over him it was pitiful." Sammy Hagar revisited his darkest days in Van Halen in a 2016 interview newly uploaded online

Leslie West and Eddie Van Halen onstage

"I started laughing, because he is the best": Watch unseen footage of late guitar icons Eddie Van Halen and Leslie West backstage and jamming

By Fraser Lewry published

The extraordinary footage comes from a Los Angeles club show in 2002

Dave Grohl onstage soloing

Watch Dave Grohl and Wolfgang Van Halen prank an entire festival with cover of Van Halen's Eruption

By Fraser Lewry published

In which, for a brief moment, Dave Grohl is the best guitarist the world has ever seen

Nina DiGregorio playing violin

"I've ripped up my fingers to shreds, they bled, they blistered": Watch Nina DiGregorio's jaw-dropping version of Van Halen's Eruption, played on 7-string fretted violin

By Fraser Lewry published

Nina DiGregorio spent years preparing for this moment

Studio portraits of Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen

"I can't think of a Van Halen song that doesn't put a smile on my face – it's just a question of figuring out how to play them": How Joe Satriani is preparing to pay tribute to Eddie Van Halen

By Gary Graff published

Exclusive: we talk to Joe Satriani as the setlist for Sammy Hagar's upcoming The Best of All Worlds tour begins to take shape

Van Halen

"I miss hearing you laugh. I miss laughing with you": Wolfgang Van Halen shares poignant birthday message to his late father Eddie, on what would have been the guitar legend's 69th birthday

By Paul Brannigan published

"I'll do my best to keep a smile on my face and think of you today"

Billie Joe Armstrong and Eddie Van Halen

“He started crying, and goes, You're the only one that understands me”: Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong recalls the day he made his childhood hero Eddie Van Halen cry

By Paul Brannigan published

They say that you should never meet your heroes, but meeting Eddie Van Halen was an experience Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong will never forget

Van Halen posing astride a military tank

"Kids came in their thousands, and the first two rows looked like Attila The Hun’s frontline troops – frothing at the mouth": four years on the road with America's ultimate party band, Van Halen

By Johnny Black published

At the tag end of the 70s, Van Halen were poised to become one of the biggest-grossing acts on the planet... but the cracks were beginning to show

Guitarist Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar are shown performing on stage during a "live" concert appearance with Van Halen on August 26, 1986. (Photo by John Atashian/Getty Images)

Sammy Hagar says it's "ugly" that a tribute concert in honour of Eddie Van Halen hasn't taken place

By Stef Lach published

Red Rocker Sammy Hagar thinks a concert in Eddie Van Halen's memory should happen – but says it's not his job to arrange it

Eddie Van Halen on SNL

"It was fantastic – it was ridiculous how good it was": In 1987 Eddie Van Halen appeared on Saturday Night Live and displayed the full range of his talents

By Fraser Lewry published

The less said about that Dinner At The Van Halens skit, the better

Iconic guitars played by Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page and Rick Nielsen

11 iconic guitars and the legendary guitarists who played them

By Jenna Scaramanga published

From Jimmy Page’s double-necked Gibson to Brian May‘s Red Special, these are the guitars that became legends in their own right

Eddie Van Halen sitting down holding a guitar with lots of other guitars on the floor

Eddie Van Halen: game-changer, tone-chaser, riff machine, songwriter, composer, avant-garde artist and genius

By Grant Moon published

Like Jimi Hendrix a decade earlier, Eddie Van Halen revolutionised the guitar. Three years on from his death, we continue to celebrate the late, great six-string icon who changed rock’n’roll forever

Steve Hackett and Eddie Van Halen onstage

"It enabled me to be the fastest gun in the west for about five minutes:" Steve Hackett, Eddie Van Halen, and the murky origins of finger tapping

By Fraser Lewry published

Eddie Van Halen famously popularised finger tapping, but Steve Hackett was doing it as long ago as 1971

Wolfgang Can Halen added to the cover artwork of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

"Big Balls made my dad laugh so hard": Wolfgang Van Halen on how he bonded with dad Eddie over Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

By Dave Everley published

Wolfgang Van Halen on Malcolm Young: "The groove that man had was untouchable"