Eddie Van Halen Posthumously Received Lifetime Achievement Award From National Guitar Museum
via DWTH/YouTube
They Awarded It Posthumously For The First Time
Eddie Van Halen is the first one to be honored posthumously by the National Guitar Museum with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Every year since 2010, they’ve awarded it to a living guitarist who has influenced and inspired other guitar players. Some of those who have been honored in the past include Tony Iommi, Buddy Guy, Liona Boyd, and B.B. King.
A statement from the National Guitar Museum posted on social media reads: “Every year for more than a decade, The National GUITAR Museum has given our “Lifetime Achievement Award” to a living guitarist who has contributed to the legacy of the guitar. The guidelines are straightforward: the person must have been a performing or recording artist whose talents had an effect on guitar playing—and whose career inspired and influenced other guitar players.
“This year, the year of the pandemic, has given us reason to make an exception to our annual presentation. For 2020, we are recognizing Eddie Van Halen as the recipient of our Lifetime Achievement Award. It is being awarded, for the first time, in memoriam. It is perhaps fitting that we don’t need to explain why Eddie is deserving of such an honor—everyone who has ever heard his guitar playing knows. Eddie certainly would have received this award at some point in the future, as it seemed that he still had a lifetime of guitar greatness to give.
“Several of the people we’ve honored over the past decade have left us in the years since we presented them with the award. In this case, however, the sadness of Eddie Van Halen’s passing is somehow harder to accept. Thanks, Eddie. We only wish we could deliver this in person.”
It’s a well-deserved award especially since EVH revolutionized electric guitar playing. He passed away on October 6, 2020.