Dutch American guitar legend Eddie van Halen never forgot his fondness for herring
Dutch American guitar player Eddie van Halen has died of throat cancer in the US at the age of 65.
Van Halen, founder of rock group Van Halen along with his brother Alex, was born in Amsterdam, and the family moved to Nijmegen shortly afterwards. Their father Jan was a musician and their mother Eugenia was born in Indonesia.
In 1962 the family moved to the US, settling in Pasadena, California, where the brothers became naturalised US citizens.
Eddie, whose full name was Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, and Alex began performing together as teens and over four decades, Van Halen released more than a dozen albums together.
Despite moving to the US at a young age, Van Halen continued to speak Dutch. In the early 1990s, he told an interviewer that the Netherlands was a ‘prachtig land’ and that the herring sold at a fish stand in front of the Concertgebouw was ‘delicious’.
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