To commemorate Esquire‘s 80th anniversary, the magazine is creating a living portrait of the American man, ages one through 80, in a feature called Life of Man.
The one-and-only Eddie Van Halen was the man tabbed for No. 58.
In the guitarist’s feature, he talked about the advice he got from his father when he made mistakes as a young musician.
“[The best advice] was from my father at an early age when we were making music. I would make mistakes, and I would ask, ‘What do you do?’ And he’d say, in Dutch, ‘Gewoon door blijven gaan,’ which means ‘Don’t stop and don’t let the audience know you made a mistake,’” Van Halen noted.
In addition to Esquire‘s list of men, an interactive website is allowing fans to submit portraits of themselves. For every photograph submitted, Esquire is donating $1 to the United Way to raise the next generation of extraordinary Americans.
Check out the feature on Van Halen here.