Eddie Van Halen has posthumously been awarded the lifetime achievement award from the National Guitar Museum.
The National Guitar Museum is based in New York city and aims to preserve and celebrate the history of the instrument. It also highlights how the guitar has evolved over 200 years and the impact it has made in music.
Eddie Van Halen becomes the first person to win the award in memoriam. The National Guitar Museum said in a statement:
"It is perhaps fitting that we don't need to explain why Eddie is deserving of such an honour, everyone who has ever heard his guitar playing knows. Eddie certainly would have received this award at some point in the future, as it seemed that he still had a lifetime of guitar greatness to give."
"Several of the people we've honoured over the past decade have left us in the years since we presented them with the award. In this case, however, the sadness of Eddie Van Halen's passing is somehow harder to accept."
"Thanks, Eddie. We only wish we could deliver this in person."
Previous recipients of the award include Tony Iommi, B.B. King and Glen Campbell.
The legendary guitarist sadly passed away in October of this year. This week, his son Wolfgang, took to Twitter to express his frustration at people asking for a reunion. Wolfgang was replying to a now deleted tweet.
In a series of tweets, he said "I can confidently say I will NEVER replace my father in Van Halen and tour around the world disrespecting my father’s memory. No EVH = No VH."
"Get the fuck over it, but if you can’t, just quit bothering me about it and demanding I do it when I’ve made it very clear how I feel."
https://twitter.com/WolfVanHalen/status/1339719250487857152
He went on to add "and ESPECIALLY quit acting all high and mighty like this turkey like I would throw away my morals for the right price. Fuck off, bro."
https://twitter.com/WolfVanHalen/status/1339720090942459904
Since his passing, the music world has paid many tributes for the late icon. Slash remembered Eddie and said "Eddie Van Halen was a tremendously gifted musician. His style and his sound were completely unique to him. He had a massive impact on guitar playing. I don’t think there’s anybody that’s picked up the guitar since 1978 that hasn’t been touched in some way by Eddie Van Halen’s influence. I’m going to miss his playing and I’m going to miss him as a friend."
Kirk Hammett was quoted calling Eddie Van Halen "amazing". He also added "Not since Jimi Hendrix had there been a guitar player that had so much impact, and was so inspiring to me. He just explored the most simplest thing – a harmonic on his string – and brought it into this realm of technique that no-one even thought was possible. He was just, like, from a different planet.”
Recently, some of Eddie's guitars went for big money at auction. You can read Radio Nova's report on it here.
