Pasadena Enshrines Rock Past With Van Halen Memorial

PASADENA, CA — Pasadena’s place in rock history will not go unremembered.

City officials unveiled a plaque Monday at the Civic Auditorium honoring musician Eddie Van Halen, who founded the eponymous rock band with his brother Alex in Pasadena during the 1970s.

Van Halen died in 2020 at the age of 65 from throat cancer.

The plaque was spearheaded by a grassroots group called Pasadena 4 Van Halen, which started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for the design and fabrication of the memorial.

The band played several shows at the venue before finding mainstream success, according to the campaign’s organizers, Randa Schmalfeld and Julie Kimura.

"We are delighted to make this significant donation in celebration of Edward Van Halen's extraordinary talent and in honor of Van Halen's Pasadena roots," Schmalfeld previously told Pasadena Now.

While the plaque features the band’s logo, it does not include Van Halen’s likeness or an image of his “Frankenstrat” guitar because of legal issues, according to the GoFundMe.

However, Van Halen’s relatives endorsed the plaque’s installation, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.

"Regarded as one of the most successful bands of all time, Van Halen will forever be remembered for reinventing Rock 'n' Roll and their connection to Pasadena," the plaque reads.

The Van Halen family emigrated from the Netherlands to Pasadena in 1962 and settled in a house on Las Lunas Street. The two Van Halen children, Eddie and Alex, attended Hamilton Elementary School, where they performed for the first time in a student band called the Broken Combs — and held down a paper route for the Pasadena Star-News.

By the early 1970s, the Van Halen boys attended Pasadena City College where, in a scoring and arranging class, they met future Van Halen frontman, David Lee Roth. Together, with Arcadia resident Michael Anthony, they formed the group Van Halen and began playing local venues from outdoor parties to the Civic Auditorium.

By the 1980s, Van Halen was regarded as one of the best-selling rock artists of all time.

Eddie Van Halen led the band through five decades and three lead singers and was considered a virtuoso for his two-handed tapping technique. Along with appearing on over a dozen albums with the band, Eddie played the blazing guitar break on Michael Jackson's megahit "Beat It."

Given the band's connection to Pasadena and the hometown pride expressed by its residents, several residents asked that the city name a street, alley or other monument in Eddie's honor following his death last year. A strip of curb on North Allen Avenue, near the former Van Halen home on Las Lunas Street, served as a makeshift memorial site after his death, prompting a broader discussion of a local memorial in a non-residential area, according to the city.

Derderian said previously that many residents have fond memories of the Van Halen brothers playing at house parties and performing in small clubs throughout the San Gabriel Valley. Van Halen signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977 after the company's president attended one of their gigs.

City News Service contributed to this report.