Eddie Van Halen Took 1,000 Steroid Pills Before His Death: “If Two Are Good, 20 Are Better”: Bro

Eddie Van Halen struggled with addiction his entire life.

After doctors gave him steroid pills for 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 Tuesday.

One day, Alex said, he realized that Eddie had taken a whole bottle of pills because they made him “feel like Superman.”

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

EDDIE VAN HALEN'S SONG WOLFGANG HITS BACK AT DAVID LEE ROTH AFTER THE SINGER INJURIES HIM IN WILD SCREENING

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

Eddie Van Halen died in October 2020 after suffering a massive stroke while battling throat cancer.

“You know, he fought until the end,” Alex told Rolling Stone. “Anybody who thought they were anything less than that, I don’t give a fuck. … If you knew what he had to go through to beat cancer – he wouldn't undergo conventional treatment. Some of the wall.” “S— caused such a toxic mixture in his body. And yes, you shouldn’t drink with it, Ed!”

Alex said Eddie went to Switzerland for experimental cancer treatments before his death and continued making music there.

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“I don’t know what drove him in the end,” Alex admitted. “There was something, an itch he couldn't scratch, something he had to do. He made music until the end. …To be honest, it wasn't very good. But that wasn’t the point. “That’s what he did.”

Alex admits that his brother's death has broken him. Alex was even diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

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,” he told the magazine with what he called “oceanic grief.”

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“I screamed and screamed. I was beside myself,” he said.

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

“There is a part of me that is common sense. If this is going to upset me, why should I do this? … Common sense was not Ed’s strong suit.”

—Alex Van Halen

Alex, who is writing a memoir about his relationship with Eddie called Brothers, said her father was an alcoholic who gave Alex his first drink when he was six, and they both had problems, but Alex was He finally got sober around the turn of the millennium, buoyed by the support of his wife Stine Schyberg, to whom he was married for 24 years.

“There is a part of me that is common sense. If this is going to upset me, why should I do this? … Common sense was not Ed’s strong suit.”

Alex said Eddie continued to make music until the end of his life. “He did.” (David Tan/Shinko Music/Getty Images)

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

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

EDDIE VAN HALEN'S SON WOLFGANG ON HIS FATHER'S MOURNING: “HE'S THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ME GOING”

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

Eddie Van Halen's ex, Valerie Bertinelli, with her only son, Wolfgang Van Halen. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

“I didn't drink to party,” he explained, adding that during the tour, when the rest of the band went looking for women, he stayed in his hotel room and wrote music while drinking and doing cocaine.

“Alcohol and cocaine were a private matter for me,” he continued. “I would use them for work. The hit keeps you awake and the alcohol lowers your inhibitions. I'm sure there were musical things I wouldn't have attempted if I hadn't been in that mental state. You just play alone while the tape plays, and after about an hour your mind reaches a point where you don't think about anything.

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

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