Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a Dutch-born American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. He is considered to be one of the world's greatest guitarists, and one of the most influential rock guitarists of the 20th century. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. In 2012, he was voted in a Guitar World magazine reader's poll as the number one of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Biography

Early life

Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen is the son of Dutch father, Jan van Halen, a clarinetist, saxophonist, and pianist, and Indonesian-born Eurasian mother, Eugenia van Halen (born van Beers). Van Halen's middle name, "Lodewijk," is after composer Ludwig van Beethoven, "Lodewijk" being the Dutch equivalent of "Ludwig." He continued this tradition by naming his son Wolfgang Van Halen after composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.