Eddie Van Halen plaque to be unveiled at Civic Auditorium

Monday’s ceremony not open to public because of pandemic

Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen will be memorialized in Pasadena just more than a year after his death.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and fellow council members are expected to unveil a recently installed plaque outside of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium Monday morning to honor the late guitarist and his connection to the city.

The public is not invited to Monday’s ceremony due to coronavirus protocols and the family also will not be present due to scheduling conflicts, officials said Thursday, but they hope residents will enjoy the memorial for years to come.

Shortly after his death on Oct. 6, 2020 at the age of 65, city leaders received requests from the community to take action or name something in Van Halen’s honor to recognize both his Pasadena connection as well as the impact that his artistry had on music.

One suggestion would have alleyway Electric Drive renamed for Van Halen — or, as his name was written in a 2020 staff report: Edward L. Van Halen.

Residents who live near Electric Drive spoke out against renaming the alleyway — which runs behind the Raymond Theater, one of Van Halen’s rehearsal spaces — so others suggested potentially erecting a monument somewhere in the city.

“Given the band’s connection to Pasadena,” city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said Thursday, “we agreed it was appropriate to place a plaque outside the Civic Auditorium.”

The location is where the band played several of its earliest performances, according to Derderian. She said Pasadena 4 Halen, a group led by Pasadena residents, raised money to fund the plaque.

Eddie and his drumplaying brother Alex Van Halen both attended Pasadena High School. They cofounded the famed eponymous rock band, Van Halen, along with friends David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony, who also grew up in the Pasadena area.

The guitarist is revered as one of the industry’s alltime greats and the band’s beginnings are traced to Pasadena City College before they became household names.

By 1977, Van Halen the band secured its first recording contract and churned out several multiplatinum albums over the next decade.

By the mid-1980s, Van Halen was regarded as one of the best-selling rock artists of all time.

The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.