Alex Van Halen

At 71 years old, Alex Van Halen has this physical status:

Alexander Arthur van Halen ([?l?k's?nd?r '?rt?r v?n'ha?l?(n)], born May 8, 1953 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-American musician who is the drummer and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen.

The band was formed in 1974 by Alex Van Halen; his younger brother, Eddie Van Halen; David Lee Roth; and Michael Anthony.

Warner Brothers signed the band in 1977, and its debut album was released in 1978.

Alex and Eddie Van Halen are the only members of Van Halen who have been in the band throughout its existence.

Early life

Van Halen was born in Amsterdam. The family name in Dutch is van Halen (with lower-case 'v') and is pronounced in Dutch as [vɑn ˈɦaːlə(n)]. His Dutch father, Jan van Halen (1920–1986), was an accomplished jazz saxophonist and clarinetist. His mother, Eugenia van Beers (1914–2005), was an Indo (Eurasian) from Rangkasbitung, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Alex spent his early years in Nijmegen in the east of the Netherlands. The family moved to Pasadena, California, in 1962. Alex and his brother Eddie became naturalized U.S. citizens.

Both brothers were trained as classical pianists during childhood. Although Alex is known as a professional drummer, he began his musical aspirations as a guitarist, with his brother Eddie taking up drums. While Eddie was delivering newspapers to pay for his drum kit, Alex would practice playing on them. After spending some time playing Eddie's drum kit, Alex became more skilled than Eddie was as a drummer. After Eddie heard Alex's mastery of The Surfaris drum solo in the song "Wipe Out", he decided to learn to play the electric guitar. Alex was influenced by Budgie drummer Ray Phillips.

Alex, Eddie and three other boys formed their first band when they were in the fourth grade, calling themselves The Broken Combs; they performed at lunchtime at Hamilton Elementary School in Pasadena, California.

In 1971, Van Halen graduated from Pasadena High School. He then took classes in music theory, scoring, composition and arranging at Pasadena City College for a short while. While there, Alex met Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth. They formed the band Mammoth, and Alex, along with the others, left Pasadena City College.

Personal life

Van Halen married Valeri Kendall in June 1983, after a two-year engagement. The marriage ended in divorce two months later. Van Halen's first of two sons, Aric Van Halen, was born October 6, 1989; Aric's mother was Van Halen's then-wife, Kelly Carter, whom he divorced in August 1996 after 13 years of marriage. Van Halen married his current wife, Stine Schyberg, in 2000. She is the mother of his son Malcolm Van Halen. Van Halen is the uncle of Wolfgang Van Halen.

After the death of his father Jan in December 1986, Van Halen embraced sobriety in April 1987.

Van Halen is an ordained minister. He presided at the second wedding of his brother Eddie in 2009 and presided at the second wedding of Valerie Bertinelli, his ex-sister in-law, in 2011. His son Aric is a passionate runner and competed in the Olympic trials for the steeplechase in 2016.

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Musical career

Before the formation of Van Halen, Alex and Eddie Van Halen had been in several bands. The Space Brothers, The Trojan Rubber Company, and Mammoth were among The Broken Combs' titles that were in addition to The Broken Combs.

The brothers formed Mammoth in 1972, with Mark Stone on bass and Eddie on lead vocals. For their shows, the band rented David Lee Roth's PA system. Eddie became dissatisfied with his lead and asked Roth to join the band shortly after. The name Mammoth had been changed to Van Halen in 1974, after another band took the name Mammoth, and Michael Anthony replaced Stone. Roth has said that it was his idea to rename the band Van Halen and that he actually named it after Alex. Alex performed administrative tasks, such as booking gigs and the like for the band during his playing days. Van Halen's 1978 self-titled debut album was released to brisk reception, influencing many musicians in hard rock. Van Halen had released eleven more studio albums since then and officially disbanded a month after Eddie's death on October 6, 2020.

Although Eddie's guitar "brown sound" is commonly associated with his guitar, Alex's term was actually invented to describe the sound of his snare drum.

Alex never recorded any music without his brother being involved, with Michael Anthony's comment that "the only one that he plays with is Ed." In the Eddie instrumental "Respect the Wind" album, Alex's only recording outside of the band's collection, the Van Halen brothers have been nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, despite the band's Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (Best Rock Instrumental Performance).

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