Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a Dutch-born American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. He is considered to be one of the world's greatest guitarists, and one of the most influential rock guitarists of the 20th century. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. In 2012, he was voted in a Guitar World magazine reader's poll as the number one of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" over Brian May of Queen (number two) and Alex Lifeson of Rush (number three).