Veteran rock star Eddie Van Halen died from cancer complications on Tuesday. He was 65.
Born in Amsterdam, Van Halen moved to Pasadena, California, in 1962 with his family. He and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, played music together growing up, eventually playing around Los Angeles and forming a band in the mid-1970s.
But after his incredible success in the music industry, he grew to love the game of golf and would play with his brother, Alex, though he admitted he was more interested in downing a few beers than posting a good score.
Interestingly enough, he got so interested that he decided to join the posh Lakeside Golf Club, which has had members as notable as Frank Sinatra and Jack Nicholson.
One problem — the club wasn’t interested in him.
Van Halen told Golf Magazine in 2019 that it took the encouragement of a certain influential movie star to get the ball rolling, hypothetically.
“At first, they wouldn’t let me in,” Van Halen explained. “They said I was the only longhaired rock and roller, and Joe Pesci and a bunch of other members stuck up for me and said, ‘Hey, what do you think, he’s going to be dealing heroin at the back door?'”
He was eventually accepted into the club, and after letting his membership lie dormant for a stretch, it took another famous friend, this time George Lopez, to get him playing again.
“I met him for dinner, and he said, ‘Man, I didn’t know you were a member at Lakeside.’ I went, ‘Yeah, man. I’ve been a member for 30 years.’ He goes, ‘But you never play.’ I go, ‘I know! I got no one to play with.’ And he goes, ‘Let’s go.’ So I tee it up, crack the s— out of the ball, straight down the fairway. And George looks at me and goes, ‘You are full of s—.’