You Tube Gold: Eddie Van Halen’s Father Was An Amazing Musician Himself

Eddie Van Halen, who died of cancer on October 6th, was a gifted musician. He was celebrated for his dexterity and for his contributions to rock guitar. He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea (like around here), but no one could deny his gifts. He was tremendously talented.

When he passed away, most of what we knew about him was limited to Van Halen and his celebrity marriage to Valerie Bertinelli.

Then we learned that his Dutch father married a woman from Indonesia from a group known as Indos (mixed Asian and European ancestry) and that when the Van Halens moved to the US, Eddie, who was in primary school, was picked on by his classmates.

We also learned that his dad was a musician but we had no idea just how good he was.

He played saxophone, clarinet and piano, or at least those were considered his primaries.

Well you might as well add ukulele to the list because what he’s doing here is absolutely incredible.

And for people who thought that Eddie invented the whole thing of tapping on his strings?

His dad beat him to it by decades.

And he probably was a better showman too. This is really amazing. We’ve never heard anyone play a ukulele like this before.