Alex Van Halen Recalls Having His First Drink at Age 6: 'Alcohol Was Definitely a Problem in Our Family'

Mar. 15, 2025

Eddie Van Halen (left) and Alex Van Halen in 1978.Photo:Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty

Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty

Van HalendrummerAlex Van Halenwas introduced to the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle at averyyoung age.

The rocker, sober from alcohol since the 1980s, opens up about his experiences with drinking in his new memoirBrothers(out now), and the ways in which his father’s attitude toward alcohol influenced both him and his later brotherEddie Van Halen.

“He didn’t give me a pacifier; to placate me he gave me a tobacco pipe,” he writes. “I was young when I first realized that alcohol had that effect on me — that it lifted my spirits like nothing else. For people whose bodies react to alcohol the way mine does, it’s like you’ve gone back to the womb. Everything is warm and fuzzy, no matter where you happen to be.”

Alex Van Halen.Scott Sheratt

Scott Sheratt

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In a 2021 interview withModern Drummer, Alex said he ultimately quit drinking after the 1986 death of his father. In his book, he reveals thathis wife Stine helped him get cleanfrom an addiction to benzodiazepines in the 1990s.

Eddie, meanwhile, struggled with a dependence on alcohol for many years, and in 2015, toldBillboardhe’d been sober since 2008.

“I was an alcoholic, and I needed alcohol to function,” he said. “I started drinking and smoking when I was 12. I got drunk before I’d show up to high school… I’m not blaming my father at all, but he was an alcoholic, too. So in our household, it was normal.”

Eddiedied of cancer in 2020at age 65, andBrothersis a heartfelt love letter from Alex to his late sibling.

source: people.com