The Joy and Pain of Eddie Van Halen

A special online release tells the story of the man who reinvented electric guitar

TO HIS FANS AND PEERS, Eddie Van Halen — who died of cancer on October 6th — was a larger-than-life guitar superhero who reshaped his instrument forever by the age of 22. But underneath his famous smile, Van Halen was a sometimes-tortured genius who started life in America as an outsider. He and future Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen emigrated from the Netherlands with their family when Eddie was seven years old, and he barely spoke a word of English when they arrived. In Rolling Stone’s definitive digital cover story, which Eddie’s ex-wife, Valerie Bertinelli, called “heartbreaking, truthful, and beautiful,” senior writer Brian Hiatt tells the complex full story of Eddie Van Halen, drawing on multiple conversations with the artist. “It’s a good life, man,” Eddie told us in 2008.