Edward Lodewijk Van Halen

He was previously married to actress Valerie Bertinelli whom he divorced in 2005. The couple has a son named Wolfgang Van Halen who is also a musician.

He married actress and stuntwoman Janie Liszewski in 2009.

He has a history of alcohol abuse and has been plagued by various major health problems like avascular necrosis and tongue cancer.

Born as Edward Lodewijk Van Halen to Jan Van Halen and Eugenia, he is of mixed descent.

His father was a musician who made sure that Eddie and his brother Alex received piano lessons. However the brothers did not like playing the piano much; Eddie later took to the guitar and Alex started playing the drums.

Growing up, his musical idols were Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. He learnt to play all of Clapton’s solos by listening to his records.

The brothers’ love for music was such that they formed their first band while they were still in Elementary school.

Eddie, along with brother Alex, bassist Mark Stone and vocalist David Lee Roth formed a band called Mammoth. Later on the band's name was changed to Van Halen in 1972 and Michael Anthony was called in to replace Mark Stone.

The band was heard by record producer Ted Templeton in 1977 who helped them sign a contract with Warner Brothers Records. Their debut album ‘Van Halen’ was out in 1978 which peaked at No. 19 on the U.S. Billboard Albums Chart and eventually went Diamond.

They released ‘Van Halen II’ in 1979 which performed even better than its predecessor reaching No. 6 on the Billboard charts. It included the singles ‘Dance the Night Away’ and ‘Beautiful Girls’.

In 1980 their third studio album ‘Women and Children First’ was released. The lyrics had been solely composed by the band members and it featured music that was different from the previous albums.

The prolific band released ‘Fair Warning’ in 1981 and ‘River Down’ in 1982. Both albums were accredited Multi-Platinum in the U.S and Platinum in Canada.

The band’s debut album, ‘Van Halen’ was a smash hit which included many of Van Halen’s signature songs like ‘Runnin with the Devil’, ‘You Really Got Me’ and the guitar solo ‘Eruption’. It was accredited Diamond in the U.S. and Multi-Platinum in Canada.

The album ‘1984’ is the band’s best performing album in terms of sales and charting. It spawned the No. 1 Billboard Pop hit ‘Jump’ and achieved Diamond status in the U.S. The highly popular rock band reached the pinnacle of its glory with this album.