What Happened To Eddie Van Halen's Body After He Died?
When Eddie Van Halen died, he left a hole felt across the music industry. Despite their painful loss, Van Halen's family has gone to great lengths to honor the guitarist's legacy.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00When Eddie Van Halen died, he left a hole felt across the music industry. Despite their
00:04painful loss, Van Halen's family has gone to great lengths to honor the guitarist's
00:08legacy.
00:09On October 6, 2020, Eddie Van Halen died at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa
00:13Monica due to complications from cancer. He had formed Van Halen with his brother Alex
00:17on drums, singer David Lee Roth, and Michael Anthony on bass, in 1974. They began to climb
00:23to the top of the rock charts in the ensuing years, with Eddie's unique guitar style taking
00:26center stage.
00:27While Van Halen's career progressed, Eddie married actor Valerie Bertinelli in 1981,
00:32and the pair had a son named Wolfgang in 1991. Van Halen's lineup underwent many changes
00:37over the years, and Wolfgang eventually replaced Anthony on bass in 2007. The band officially
00:42broke up following Eddie's death, after permanently changing the music industry in their nearly
00:46five-decade career.
00:47The guitarist first developed tongue cancer in 2000, and had part of his tongue removed.
00:51Doctors deemed Eddie cancer-free two years later, but in 2017, he developed stage IV
00:56tongue cancer, and in 2019, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Ultimately, the cause
01:00of his death was a stroke, but he reportedly had several other contributing factors, including
01:05multiple cancers, pneumonia, and an erratic heartbeat. After he passed, his family had
01:09pizza, one of Eddie's favorite meals, in the hospital room to honor him.
01:14Wolfgang was by his dad's side when he died. As he recalled in an episode of Behind the
01:18Music, he was holding his father's hand as he passed.
01:20I just felt the warmth of his hand on my face until I couldn't feel him anymore."
01:28Wolfgang went on to say that Eddie's last words to him were,
01:31"'I love you.'"
01:32"'I was very happy. I was able to spend every second with him that I could.'"
01:36Wolfgang announced his father's passing in an Instagram post, writing,
01:39"'He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I've shared with him on
01:42and off stage was a gift. My heart is broken, and I don't think I'll ever fully recover
01:46from this loss.'"
01:48Twenty-two days after Eddie's death, his family had his body cremated at L.A.'s Forest Lawn
01:52Memorial Parks and Mortuaries. One of Eddie's final wishes was for his ashes to be scattered
01:57off the coast of Malibu, a place he used to live. Wolfgang honored his father's wishes
02:01and scattered the cremains in the Pacific Ocean, but he didn't scatter all of them.
02:05Instead, he had a necklace made that features his father's thumbprint and contained some
02:08of his ashes as well.
02:10"'He's hanging on my neck. Every show I've ever played, he's with me all the time.'"
02:18It's unclear if Eddie knew what his son planned to do with part of his remains. Regardless,
02:22following the final breakup of Van Halen, Wolfgang has focused on his music career with
02:25his solo project Mammoth WVH. He released his second full-length album, Mammoth II,
02:30in 2023, and continues to tour extensively.
02:33While Eddie didn't live to see his son's success as a solo artist, he's onstage with his successor
02:38every time Mammoth WVH performs, thanks to that necklace.