A large mural depicting the iconic guitarist was unveiled at the Hollywood Guitar Center flagship store, in commemoration of what would’ve been the late guitarist’s 66th birthday (January 26th). The artwork, created by local muralist Robert Vargas, stands at 17 feet tall by 105 feet wide, depicts Eddie van Halen playing his famous “Frankenstrat” guitar, Brooklyn Vegan reports.
National Guitar Museum has named Eddie Van Halen as their Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2020, and, for the first time, it was in memoriam. Every year for more than a decade, the museum has saluted a living guitarist who has contributed significantly to the legacy of the guitar - previously it was given to Roger McGuinn (2011), B.B. King (2012), Tony Iommi (2015), Glen Campbell (2016) and Bonnie Raitt (2017). The guidelines state that the person whose talents had an effect on guitar playing, and whose career inspired and influenced other guitar players, Blabbermouth reports.
Two of Kurt Cobain’s smashed Fender guitars sold for a combined $281,600 at an auction, Rolling Stone reports. Bob Marley’s first guitar earned $153,600 at Icons & Idols Trilogy: Rock ‘n’ Roll Auction, while three guitars once belonging to the late Eddie Van Halen have sold for a combined $422,000. The instruments were sold as part of a celebrity auction where nearly 900 items were offered, including items once owned by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, and more.
Jack White performed on Saturday Night Live, accompanied by drummer Daru Jones and bassist Dominic John Davis. They played a bit of White's Beyoncé collaboration, 'Don’t Hurt Yourself', before transitioning into 'Ball and Biscuit' reworked to feature lyrics from 'Jesus is Coming Soon', a traditional gospel song about the 1918 Spanish Flu that was famously performed by Blind Willie Johnson. They finished with 'Lazaretto', for which White played Eddie van Halen model guitar, and in a further nod to Van Halen, White briefly played a finger-tapping solo on the guitar.
Van Halen saw an uptick of over 6,000 percent in album and song sales in the US in the day after Eddie Van Halen's death, Billboard reports. The total rise came from 40,000 copies of collected Van Halen albums and songs sold on Oct. 6, compared to just under 1,000 on the day before. Going by just album sales, Van Halen's catalog reportedly sold 9,000 copies on Oct. 6, an increase of 5,835 percent when compared to a negligible amount from Oct. 5. As far as songs, the group sold 31,000 single tracks on Oct. 6, with the most popular song, 'Jump', going in 3,000 copies.
Pantera's late guitarist Dimebag Darrell was a big Van Halen fan, so when a limited edition guitar with EVH's signature tape-stripping was about to be launched, Darrell called Van Halen trying to buy on. Van Halen said no, but promised to bring him one personally. Darrell was killed on-stage soon after, so when Eddie van Halen came to his funeral he put one of these hand-taped guitars in his casket.
Guitarist Joe Satriani shared his thoughts on Eddie van Halen with the Billboard, after the virtuoso guitarist's passing: "The little technical things that guitar players can talk about for hours, they get picked up by a million people in a second. Everybody can copy the technical bits, but nobody could put the heart and soul and personality into each little bit like he could and no one delivered it like he did. He wrote great songs that were fun". Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello looked up to him: "Eddie Van Halen was one of the greatest, most inventive, truly visionary musicians of all time. He was an unparalleled titan in the annals of rock & roll". Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan was also an unexpected fan: “I am truly saddened by his loss; and isn’t it strange that a man who played an instrument spoke directly to so many in an unmatched way that rivals only a few: Coltrane, Hendrix, Parker, Miles, Django”.
Van Halen guitarist and co-founder Eddie Van Halen has died at the age of 65, from cancer, the New York Times, who calls him "virtuoso of the rock guitar" reports. Eddie and his brother Alex formed their first band in 1972, eventually adopting the Van Halen family name for the group in the mid-'70s. The band released 12 studio albums, including the Diamond certified '1984', which has sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. The band was awarded a Grammy and got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Eddie van Halen's skills were also heavily sought out by many of his peers. He famously delivered the guitar solo for Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' off the 'Thriller' album. He's also worked with KISS, Black Sabbath, Brian May, Roger Waters, Steve Lukather and LL Cool J among others.
