Eddie Van Halen consumed a bottle of steroid pills weeks before death
It has been revealed that prior to his death, legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen took a large amount of steroid pills because of they made him feel “like Superman”.
Eddie Van Halen passed away in October, 2020, after a battle with throat cancer that had spread to the brain and caused him to suffer a stroke. Following his death, Van Halen retired and vowed that it wouldn’t be possible for the band to continue without him.
Now, in an interview with Rolling Stone, his elder brother and Van Halen co-founder Alex Van Halen revealed that in his final moments, Eddie had taken a large amount of pills that had been prescribed to him by doctors to reduce swelling on the brain, though his reasons for doing so were in pursuit of the feeling they gave him.
Speaking of the time they shared together before Eddie’s passing, Alex said that he opted not to tell the younger sibling that doctors were predicting that he would soon succumb to his illness. “How do you sit down with your brother and say, ‘Hey, Ed, you ain’t gonna make it’?,” asked Alex of the difficult situation he faced.
Explaining his brother’s reasoning for taking the steroid medication, Alex said, “I didn’t see the bottle, but the bottle had, like, a thousand pills in it,” and that the two of them had always lived by the mantra that “if two’s good, 20’s better.” While it may have been a huge contributing factor to speeding up his death, Alex couldn’t help but see the funny side of the incident and how it was indicative of Eddie’s outlook on life.
It was clear that Eddie may have sped up his own passing with this decision, but Alex maintains that his brother showed resilience throughout his period of ill health. “You know, he fought until the end,” shared Alex. “Anybody who thought he was anything less than that can suck my you-know-what…”
Van Halen formed in 1973 and continued to officially operate as a group under various line-up’s until Eddie Van Halen’s passing at the age of 65. There had been considerable debate as to whether the group had disbanded in the years prior due to inactivity, though it seemed that Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, would be the one to have the final say on the band’s demise.
In an interview with Howard Stern a month after his father’s death, Wolfgang was asked about rumours that he would replace his father in the band for any future reunions. Despite acknowledging that before Eddie’s cancer diagnosis, there had been significant movements to return for live performances, he dispelled all other speculation, stating that “you can’t have Van Halen without Eddie Van Halen.”
