Eddie Van Halen Took 1,000 Steroid Pills Before He Died, ‘If Two Are Good, 20 Are Better’: Bro

Eddie Van Halen struggled with addiction his entire life.

After doctors gave him steroid pills to fight swelling following surgery to remove a brain tumor near the end of his life, the legendary guitarist began abusing them, his brother Alex told Rolling Stone in an interview published this Tuesday.

One day, Alex said, he noticed that Eddie had taken an entire bottle of pills because they made him “feel like Superman.”

“I didn’t see the bottle, but the bottle had, like, a thousand pills in it,” he added. “If two is good, 20 is better. That was our mantra.”

EDDIE VAN HALEN’S WOLFGANG SONG RETURNS TO DAVID LEE ROTH AFTER THE SINGING TOOK HIM INTO WILD RANT

Eddie and Alex Valen Halen together in 1980. (SGranitz/WireImage)

Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020 after a massive stroke following a battle with throat cancer.

“You know, he fought until the end,” Alex told Rolling Stone. “Anyone who thought it was anything less than that can suck me, you know what… If I knew what it takes to beat cancer, I wouldn’t do traditional treatment. s— caused such a stir toxic to her body And yes, you shouldn’t drink with her, Ed!”

Alex said Eddie went to Switzerland for experimental cancer treatments before he died and continued to make music while there.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

“I don’t know what drove him near the end,” Alex confessed. “There was something, an itch I couldn’t scratch, something I had to do. Right up until the end, I was making music… Honestly, it wasn’t very good. But that wasn’t the point. That’s what he did “.

Alex admits that his brother’s death broke him. Alex was even diagnosed with PTSD.

Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Michael Anthony, singer David Lee Roth and guitarist Eddie Van Halen, in 1978. (Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images)

“I shut down,” she told the magazine, with what she called “oceanic grief.”

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

“I was screaming and screaming. I was beside myself,” she said.

Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen and Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen in 2007. (Steve Granitz/WireImage)

“There’s a part of me that’s common sense. If this is going to come down to me, why would it? . . . Common sense wasn’t Ed’s strong suit.”

— Alex Van Halen

Alex, who is writing a memoir about her relationship with Eddie called “Brothers,” said her father was an alcoholic who gave Alex his first drink at age 6, and the two struggled, but Alex he finally got sober around the millennium, encouraged by the support of his wife of 24 years, Stine Schyberg.

“There’s a part of me that’s common sense. If this is going to come down to me, why would it? . . . Common sense wasn’t Ed’s strong suit.”

Alex said that Eddie continued to make music until the end of his life. “That’s what he did.” (David Tan/Shinko Music/Getty Images)

Alex said Eddie’s “biggest curse” was his enormous “talent”.

“The fact is, Ed was an incredible player, but in the end, he paid for it with his health, he paid for it with his life,” Alex said of his brother, who died at the age of 65, adding that Eddie was “overwhelmed with the burden of” being labeled the greatest guitarist alive.

EDDIE VAN HALEN’S SON, WOLFGANG, ON HIS FATHER: ‘HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO KEPT ME’

Eddie opened up about his drug and alcohol abuse in a 2015 interview with Billboard.

Eddie Van Halen’s ex, Valerie Bertinelli, with their only child, Wolfgang Van Halen. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

“I didn’t drink to party,” he explained, adding that while on tour, when the rest of the band went out looking for women, he would stay in his hotel room writing music while drinking and doing cocaine .

“Alcohol and cocaine were private things for me,” he continued. “I’d wear them to work. The bang keeps you awake and the alcohol lowers your inhibitions. I’m sure there were musical things I wouldn’t have tried if I wasn’t in that state of mind. You just play yourself with a tape going. , and after about an hour, your mind goes to a place where you’re not thinking about anything.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Valerie Bertinelli, Eddie’s ex-wife, opened up about their relationship earlier this year, writing on Instagram that it “rapidly descended into drugs, alcohol and infidelity” after they met when he was 26. and she 20.

“I loved Ed more than I know how to explain. I loved his soul,” Bertinelli wrote in his 2022 memoir, “Enough is Enough: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today.” “I hated drugs and alcohol, but I never hated him. I saw his pain.”