Įddie recorded the solo on the Michael Jackson song " Beat It" when The Who guitarist Pete Townshend became unavailable and recommended him.
By the early 1980s, Van Halen was one of the most successful rock acts of the time. The band's 1978 album Van Halen reached #19 on the Billboard pop music charts and was one of rock's most commercially successful debuts, highly regarded as both a heavy metal and hard rock album.
Stanley was confused at Eddie's interest in keyboards, but his interest resulted in the creation of " Jump". Stanley does remember Eddie coming down to the studio, being "blown away" by their song " Creatures of the Night", and telling Stanley he wanted to get into playing keyboards. However, neither Paul Stanley nor Eddie Van Halen remember this happening. It was rumored that Eddie nearly replaced guitarist Ace Frehley after his departure from KISS in 1982, but that Gene talked him out of leaving Van Halen. The next year, Warner Records offered Van Halen a recording contract. The discouraging words caused Gene to rip up the contract, and he “let them go” after feeling he may have held the band back. Stanley later said he "rejected Van Halen to protect KISS", and that they made an effort to make Gene drop the band to "keep Gene in check". Excited about the band, Gene approached KISS manager Bill Aucoin and KISS frontman Paul Stanley about them, but they dismissed his desire to sign them to Aucoin's management fold. Gene then signed them to his company and the band recorded early demos of their songs, including " Runnin' with the Devil". KISS bassist Gene Simmons saw the performance, and said, "I was waiting backstage by the third song." He asked the band about their plans, and they said, "There is a yogurt manufacturer that is going to invest in us." Gene begged them not to go that route and invited them to record some demos at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village in New York City. Īt a 1976 concert at The Starwood in California, the band opened for UFO. Two years later, the band changed its name to "Van Halen" and became a staple of the Los Angeles music scene, playing at well-known clubs like the Whisky a Go Go. If that's not the American dream, what is?" Van Halen band Įddie and his brother Alex formed a band in 1972. "I've always said Eric Clapton was my main influence," he said, "but Jimmy Page was actually more the way I am, in a reckless-abandon kind of way." Speaking at an event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2015, Van Halen discussed his life and the American Dream, saying "We came here with approximately $50 and a piano, and we didn't speak the language. He once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Clapton's solos in the band Cream note for note. He described supergroup Cream's " I'm So Glad" on the album Goodbye as "mind-blowing".
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He later cited this performance as key to his desire to become a professional musician. Įddie and Alex formed their first band with three other boys, called themselves The Broken Combs, and performed at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena when he was in the fourth grade. According to him, as a teen he often practiced while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on, or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked. Consequently, when Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit however, after he heard Alex's performance of the Surfaris' drum solo in the song " Wipe Out", he gave Alex the drums and began learning the electric guitar. His parents wanted the boys to be classical pianists, but Van Halen gravitated towards rock music, and was greatly influenced by British Invasion bands like The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five. Between 19, he won first place in the annual piano competition at Long Beach City College. Van Halen was never taught to read music instead, he watched recitals of Bach or Mozart and improvised. They began learning the piano at age six, commuting from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis. Since the boys did not speak English as a first language, they were considered "minority" students and experienced bullying by white students.
They settled near other family members in Pasadena, California, where Eddie and his brother Alex attended a segregated elementary school. Īfter experiencing mistreatment for their mixed-race relationship in the 1950s, the parents moved the family to the U.S. The family eventually settled in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Jan was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinetist and saxophonist, and Eugenia was an Indo ( Eurasian) from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Van Halen was a son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia ( née van Beers).