Legendary rock guitarist and co-founder of Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen has died after a long battle with throat cancer.

The announcement was made by his son Wolf Van Halen on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.

pic.twitter.com/kQqDV7pulR

— Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) October 6, 2020

"He was the best father I could ever ask for. Every moment I've shared with him on and off stage was a gift," Wolf Van Halen stated on social media. "My heart is broken and I don't think I'll ever fully recover from this loss."

Van Halen had been battling cancer for well over a decade.

He passed on Tuesday morning, Oct. 6, according to his son.

Despite years of smoking, the guitarist believed his throat cancer developed from years of putting copper and brass guitar picks in his mouth.

"I used metal picks, they're brass and copper, which I always held in my mouth in the exact place where I got tongue cancer," Van Halen told Billboard in 2015. “Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that’s filled with electromagnetic energy. So that’s one theory. I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it’s possible.”