You've heard Alex Van Halen's side of the story--now read Eddie Van Halen's own words in this groundbreaking oral history, composed of more than fifty hours of interviews with Eddie himself as well as his family, friends, and colleagues. When rock legend Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020, the entire world seemed to stop and grieve.Since his band Van Halen burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 1978, Eddie had been hailed as an icon not only to fans of rock music and heavy metal, but to performers across all genres and around the world. Van Halens debut sounded unlike anything that listeners had heard before and remains a quintessential rock album of the era.   Over the course of more than four decades, Eddie gained renown for his innovative guitar playing, and particularly for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique.Unfortunately for Eddie and his legions of fans, he died before he was ever able to put his life down to paper in his own words,