Eddie Van Halen Overused Prescription Pills Because They Made Him ‘Feel Like Superman,’ Says Brother Alex

Eddie Van Halen’s younger brother, Alex Van Halen, opens up about his late sibling’s addiction to pills.

In an exclusive interview for Rolling Stone released on Tuesday, October 15, the Van Halen drummer, 71, spoke about how the loss is still “more than fresh” four years after Eddie’s death in 2020.

The co-founder of the legendary rock band died on October 6, 2020 after a long-term battle with cancer, his son Wolf, who is 33 today, confirmed on Twitter at the time. Eddie was 65 years old.

Before his death, Eddie reportedly became addicted to prescribed steroid pills to relieve swelling after surgery to remove a brain tumor. According to Alex, Eddie would take more than the prescribed dose because the pills “felt like Superman.”

“I didn’t see the bottle, but there were about a thousand pills in the bottle,” Alex continued. “If two is good, 20 is better. That was our mantra.”

Eddie Van Halen 2017 Jerod Harris/Getty Alex Van Halen says David Lee Roth ‘blown the fuse’ on Eddie Van Halen tribute idea, ending future tour plans

His conversation with Rolling Stone was his first interview after Eddie’s death.

“You know, he fought until the end,” Alex told the paper. “Anyone who thought he was anything less than that can smoke you know what. … If you knew what he had to go through to beat cancer – he wouldn’t have been treated by traditional methods. Some of the common s— caused such a toxic mixture in his body and, yes, you shouldn’t drink with it, Ed!”

Van Halen 1978.

Fin Costello/Redferns

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The drummer added that his older brother continued to make music in Switzerland while undergoing experimental cancer treatments “right up to the very end”, although the music he started making “wasn’t very good”.

“But that wasn’t the point. That’s what he did,” he said.

Alex also said that Eddie’s death “closed” in what he described as “an ocean of sadness”.

“I shouted and screamed. I was beside myself – he said. “I just miss him. I lack arguments. I live with it every day. And I can’t get it back. I can’t make things right.”

The Van Halen brothers in Tokyo in 1978.

Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty

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Alex’s interview with Rolling Stone comes ahead of the fall edition of his memoirs, brothers. The book chronicles “his life with Eddie from their childhood to the end of the original Van Halen line-up in 1984,” according to the release.

“We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in,” the book says. “We shared a record player, an 800-square-foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back seat of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming successful, becoming fathers and uncles, and spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime.”

brotherswhich will be released on October 22, is now available for pre-order.

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Source: HIS Education