According to Pasadena Star-News, a memorial honoring legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen in his former hometown of Pasadena, California will be unveiled a little over a year after his death.
On Monday morning (October 11), Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and fellow council members will watch as a plaque is presented near the city Convention Center, which is next to the Civic Auditorium, where VAN HALEN played a number of times between 1975 and 1978.
The public is not invited to the ceremony due to coronavirus protocols. The musician’s family will also not be present due to scheduling conflicts, officials said.
The memorial tribute push was spearheaded by Randa Schmalfeld and Julie Kimura, two Pasadena residents who raised $6,500 through GoFundMe donations from fans from around the world for a permanent memorial in the city.
In a September 16 update on the Pasadena 4 Van Halen GoFundMe page, Randa said that the plaque “will honor the early days of VAN HALEN and the importance of their performances at the Pasadena Civic in the 1970’s. In addition to a brief description about the Van Halen family and the band, and their relationship to Pasadena, it will also include the infamous VAN HALEN logo, which the band has approved for display on the plaque.”
This past April, Pasadena Now reported that the Eddie Van Halen memorial near the city Convention Center could not — due to legal issues — contain Van Halen‘s likeness or his famous “Frankenstrat” guitar.
A couple of weeks after Van Halen‘s passing, a City Council meeting was held in Pasadena 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 earlier that same month at the age of 65.
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.”
“Given the band’s connection to Pasadena,” city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said Thursday, “we agreed it was appropriate to place a plaque outside the Civic Auditorium.”
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.
