Eddie Van Halen

 Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, /vaen/ van HAY@l@n; January 26, 1955 to October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the keyboardist, guitarist, backing vocalist, and primary music writer of the rock group Van Halen, which he co-founded with his brother Alex Van Halen in 1972. Van Halen is often considered one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time. Van Halen was also renowned for his tapping technique which allowed rapid arpeggios to be played with only two fingers. His father was a clarinettist and jazz pianist from Holland, while his mother was Indo (Eurasian) and was originally from Rangkasbitung located on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. The family settled in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Alex and Eddie formed The Broken Combs together with three boys. They played at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena during lunchtime in the time that Alex was in the fourth grade. Then, he mentioned the performance as a reason for his decision to be professional musician. He called the track by Cream "I’m So Glad", from the album Goodbye, "mind-blowing".