Alex Van Halen received the Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands decoration on Tuesday in Nijmegen, the city where he and his brother Eddie lived as kids. Mayor Hubert Bruls presented the honor to the 73-year-old drummer at the Berchmanianum, which is the academy building of Radboud University.<\/p>\n
This decoration is the highest civilian knighthood in the Netherlands. It marks achievements in arts, science, sport and literature.<\/p>\n
“My cousin organized most of this. But I’m very grateful,” Alex Van Halen said in an interview after the ceremony, as per fan site Van Halen News Desk<\/a>. “I think institutions like this are important in people’s lives because it adds a dignity and a gravity to what we do. Whether it’s actually deserved or not, that’s another question. But we can live up to it. That’s the whole thing, is you gotta have something to live up to.”<\/p>\n The drummer also signed Nijmegen’s Book of the City during the ceremony. Past signatories include Bruce Springsteen and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Alex Van Halen was born in Amsterdam before his family moved to Nijmegen. They lived there until 1962. Then they relocated to Pasadena, California. He and Eddie became naturalized U.S. citizens after the move.<\/p>\n Alex Van Halen was vital to the band’s sound, leading the rhythm section on hits like “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love<\/a>,” “Unchained<\/a>,” and “Panama<\/a>.” His double-bass pedal work throughout “Hot For Teache<\/a>r” was influential, combining technical skill with a drum composition that pushed boundaries and inspired countless drummers who came after him.<\/p>\n Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020 from complications due to cancer. Alex Van Halen’s memoir,\u00a0Brothers, came out in October 2024 via HarperCollins. The book provides a look into the story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love between the two musicians.<\/p>\n The city of Nijmegen maintains a connection to the brothers. Part of Hunnerpark was renamed Van Halenplein in 2019, and a mural honoring Eddie Van Halen was unveiled in the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Van Halen received the Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands decoration on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27184,6],"class_list":["post-42987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-alex-van-halen","tag-netherlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}