Eddie Van Halen

Yesterday (Aug. 31) Eddie Van Halen took some time out from his recuperation to issue an update on his health. Van Halen recently spent three weeks in the hospital after needing emergency surgery for diverticulitis.

According to a new report, Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen spent three weeks in the hospital following his recent emergency surgery for diverticulitis, and will now need four to six months at home to recover from the procedure.

To say things between Van Halen and former members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are strained is maybe a bit of an understatement. But despite the tensions there still a lot of love there for what the current Chickenfoot members did with their former band.

Eddie Van Halen‘s pup Kody Van Halen is a rock star in his own right. Forget his bipedal owner being the most famous member of the Van Halen clan. This four-legged creature has his own Facebook page and he’s been snapped in public repeatedly. He’s a rock ‘n’ roll, A-list pup.

Gene Simmons is just full of surprises. In a recent interview on Motley Crue member Nikki Sixx‘s radio show, he revealed how one of the greatest guitarists of our generation, Eddie Van Halen, wanted to join Kiss after Ace Frehley left — and how Simmons himself turned him down.

Eddie Van Halen doesn’t do a lot of interviews. In fact, during much of the last decade, he developed a reputation for being something of a recluse. But now that Van Halen is back on the road promoting its first new album in years, he’s feeling a little chattier — as evidenced by the way he opened up for a recent in-depth profile with Esquire.

Suddenly band class in Los Angeles just got a whole lot cooler. Eddie Van Halen has donated 75 guitars from his personal collection to music programs in the L.A. area. The rocker teamed up with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation to provide instruments to schools without enough for students to play.

We still don’t know when we’ll hear him play guitar again, but Eddie Van Halen is putting at least one of his axes to good use right now: he’s offering it up for auction, with the proceeds going to benefit the Drop in the Bucket charity — and the winner walking away with a true one-of-a-kind instrument. The guitar in question is a 1999 Wolfgang Translucent Cherry Sunburst 5A Flametop, autographed