Credit: Neil Zlozower Who influenced Eddie Van Halen's? How did his individual playing approach evolve? Was it by happenstance or all carefully crafted? Guitar World has taken on the task of revisiting Eddie's roots and influences to come up with an answer to those questions. Before offering up six immersive studies of Eddie's groundbreaking sound, Guitar World's Phil … [Read more...]
Van Halen News
When Van Halen Rocked Memorial Day Weekend 1983: The US Festival Revisited
The iconic photo of Van Halen taken from the band's Memorial Day '83 photo shoot on Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles with photographer Neil Zlozower On its 39th anniversary, we look back at the biggest concert of Van Halen's extravagant career! The footage embedded above is a segment of Van Halen's appearance at the US FESTIVAL in 1983. Eddie Van Halen … [Read more...]
A Look Back: Van Halen’s ‘OU812’ Released On This Day In 1988
"Oh, You Ate One Too!" Released 34 years ago today - May 24th, 1988! 'OU812' was the second Van Halen album to feature Sammy Hagar as lead singer. It reached number one on Billboard (the band's second consecutive #1), sold over 4 million copies in the US and featured six songs that landed on the Billboard Hot 100 and/or the Mainstream Rock Tracks! Hagar looked back on … [Read more...]
Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready Performs ‘Eruption’ In Tribute To Eddie Van Halen [VIDEO]
Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready honored Eddie Van Halen with a performance of "Eruption" during a May 9th concert in Glendale, Arizona. Prior to McCready's tribute, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder addressed the recent passing of some friends and family members including Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins and Eddie Van Halen. "I don’t think we’ve played a show since … [Read more...]
WATCH: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Footage Set To Van Halen’s ‘Dreams’
Van Halen is reaching for the skies and Tom Cruise is their wingman! Check out the video above created by YouTuber Naf Naf, who used clips from a behind scenes trailer for the the upcoming film "Top Gun: Maverick" (due out May 24th) and set them to Van Halen's classic 1986 single "Dreams". Of course, we weren't surprised to find videos previously created featuring … [Read more...]
Michael Anthony Responds To Van Halen Tribute Rumors [VIDEO]
Michael Anthony says he was part of the discussions regarding a possible Van Halen tribute project featuring Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Joe Satriani. During his appearance on The Mitch Lafon & Jeremy White Show, Anthony was asked by co-host Jeremy White if he was aware of the recent story making its rounds among the classic rock community regarding a possible Van … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday, Alex Van Halen!
Credit: Neil Zlozower On May 8th, 1953, Alexander Arthur Van Halen was born in Amsterdam Holland. Later the family moved to Nijmegen, where they lived until they moved to the U.S. when Alex was about 9, through a government-incentive program to reunite families. Because the family spoke little English, Alex and Eddie formed a bond during this time that has lasted … [Read more...]
WATCH: Sammy Hagar Shares Another Van Halen Video From The Vaults – ‘Why Can’t This Be Love?’ Live From Tokyo ’89
It's 5150 celebration time! Thirty-six years ago this week, Van Halen's 5150 album topped the charts. It was the band's first number one album and first featuring Sammy Hagar on lead vocals. To celebrate, Hagar shared a video of the band performing the album's debut single - "Why Can't This Be Love" - live from Tokyo, Japan in 1989. Along with the video, Hagar and … [Read more...]
Guitarist Craig Parker Adams On Following In Eddie Van Halen’s Footsteps…Literally [VIDEO]
Credit: Neil Zlozower Many guitarists have studied the lightning-fast fingers of Eddie Van Halen in a quest to capture just a fraction of his musical magic. Craig Parker Adams, however, found himself drawn to more than just his fingers. "I didn't go after Ed the way most people go after Ed," Adams said during a recent appearance on the podcast Johnny Beane TV. "I had … [Read more...]
Eddie Van Halen Left Seven-Figure Donation To Mr Holland’s Opus Foundation
Eddie Van Halen's legacy is alive and well and thanks to a recent donation at his bequest, so is the art form he was most passionate about - music. Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation recently revealed that Eddie left a "transformative" financial contribution to support music education in at-risk public schools via a seven-figure bequest to the foundation. Eddie had a close … [Read more...]
Exclusive: David Lee Roth Chimes in on Rumored Van Halen Celebration Tour
The Van Halen News Desk reached out to David Lee Roth about the new rumors that there are (or where?) some behind-the-scenes discussions contemplating the possibility of some sort of tour celebrating Van Halen's legacy. We've got an exclusive quote from him, below... But first, let's look at the rumors from the last few days... Joe Satriani says he's been in talks with … [Read more...]
WATCH: Ohio State Athletic Band Pays Tribute To Van Halen
The Ohio State Spring Athletic Band paid tribute to Van Halen during halftime of Ohio State's spring football game in Columbus. The band performed "Runnin' With The Devil", "Dreams", "Panama" and "Jump" while formations spelled out "Van Halen", "Dreams", "Jump", "1984" and the band's classic logo. … [Read more...]