In a recent interview with “Entertainment Tonight”, Wolfgang Van Halen was asked what he thinks his father Eddie Van Valen‘s legacy will be. He responded (see video below): “I think he’s the Mozart of our generation. I think the way we look back at people like Mozart and Beethoven, from how far we are removed from them, you put that amount of time ahead of us, and I think people will still be looking back at him.”
Wolfgang also commented on the outpouring of love for Eddie in the weeks following his death, saying: “It’s incredible. It’s been such a monumental amount of positivity that I haven’t really seen on the Internet before.”
Last month, a City Council meeting was held in Pasadena, California where a memorial honoring Eddie was discussed.
City manager Steve Mermell was directed to come up with ideas for how to best honor the musician, who died on October 6 at the age of 65.
Wolfgang addressed a possible Eddie Van Halen memorial during a November 20 appearance on Fox 11‘s “Good Day LA”.
“I think it’s incredible that the support is there to wanna honor him,” the 29-year-old said. “Whatever it ends up being, it has my full support. If I could suggest something, I think something as simple as a street name would be amazing.”
Among suggestions for the memorial are for alleyway Electric Drive to be renamed for Eddie; erecting a monument somewhere in the city; renaming a park; a life-size statue; and turning his childhood home into a historic landmark.
Councilmember Victor Gordo suggested that Mermell bring together a public group to figure out for the most appropriate way to remember Van Halen, who attended school in Pasadena with his drummer brother Alex, and played backyard parties in the area with VAN HALEN in the early 1970s before signing a record deal and achieving worldwide fame.
According to Pasadena Now, there may be other remembrance of Eddie Van Halen in the works. Pasadena City College will also consider a memorial at its next Board of Trustees meeting, and the Pasadena Center Operating Company has received an inquiry for a virtual concert to raise funds to build a statue.
In the first three weeks after Eddie‘s death, the city was bombarded with requests to pay tribute to the guitarist “to recognize both his local connection to Pasadena, as well as the impact that his artistry had on music,” Mermell wrote in a report.
“Recognizing Van Halen the band and/or individual members should be considered,” according to the report. “With his passing, Eddie Van Halen‘s international recognition as a musical artist is noted for the significant impact he had on the Rock & Roll genre and his legacy is a source of hometown pride for the city.”
Following Eddie‘s death after a long battle with cancer, fans left flowers at his childhood home on Las Lunas Street in Pasadena. Additional flowers, candles and fan mementos were placed on Allen Avenue where Eddie and Alex scratched their band’s name into the wet cement of a sidewalk when they were teenagers.
VAN HALEN was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Eddie Van Halen No. 8 in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists.
