Eddie Van Halen January 26, 1955- October 6, 2020

By Thomas S. Orwat, Jr.

Millions of rock music fans all over the world mourn the death of guitar ICON Eddie Van Halen. He was a major influence to pretty much every rock guitarist since 1978, when the first Van Halen record was released. Eddie single handedly took rock guitar to another dimension. There will never be another like him.

The last time Van Halen played in Western New York, I was one of the few lucky photographers that had the opportunity to photograph the band’s first six songs. What an amazing show! But that was the norm for seeing Van Halen. It was always a great time, coupled with an out of this world EPIC performance by Eddie Van Halen.

We’ve lost many of our rock heroes over the last five years, and all of their deaths were heartbreaking. But there is just something so extremely devastating about losing a trailblazing guitar GOD like Eddie Van Halen. As we all mourn his death together, may Eddie Van Halen rest in peace knowing that he truly changed the world of rock music and the art of guitar playing forever.