Don Van Vliet (, born Don Glen Vliet ;

Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments.

During his teen years in Lancaster, California, Van Vliet developed an eclectic musical taste and formed " a mutually useful but volatile " friendship with Frank Zappa, with whom he sporadically competed and collaborated.

Van Vliet has been described as " one of modern music's true innovators " with " a singular body of work virtually unrivalled in its daring and fluid creativity ".

Known for his enigmatic personality and relationship with the public, Van Vliet made few public appearances after his retirement from music ( and from his Beefheart persona ) in 1982.

Van Vliet died in 2010, having suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years.

Van Vliet was born Don Glen Vliet in Glendale, California, on January 15, 1941, to Glen Alonzo Vliet, a service station owner of Dutch ancestry from Kansas, and Willie Sue Vliet ( née Warfield ), who was from Arkansas.

He claimed to have as an ancestor Peter Van Vliet, a Dutch painter who knew Rembrandt.

Van Vliet also claimed that he was related to adventurer and author Richard Halliburton and the cowboy actor Slim Pickens, and said that he remembered being born.

Van Vliet began painting and sculpting at age three.

For some time during the 1950s Van Vliet worked as an apprentice with Rodrigues, who considered him a child prodigy.

Van Vliet later admitted personal hesitation to take the scholarship based upon the bitterness of his parents ' disencouragement.

Van Vliet remained interested in art ; his paintings, often reminiscent of Franz Kline's, were later featured on several of his own albums.

Van Vliet claimed that he never attended public school, alleging " half a day of kindergarten " to be the extent of his formal education and saying that " if you want to be a different fish, you've got to jump out of the school.

While attending Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, Van Vliet became close friends with fellow teenager Frank Zappa, the pair bonding through their interest in Chicago blues and R & B.

Van Vliet is portrayed in both The Real Frank Zappa Book and Barry Miles ' biography Zappa as fairly spoiled at this stage of his life, the center of attention as an only child.

After Zappa began regular occupation at Paul Buff's PAL Studio in Cucamonga he and Van Vliet began collaborating, tentatively as " The Soots ".

" In a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, Van Vliet requests " don't ask me why or how " he and Zappa came up with the name.

Van Vliet enrolled at Antelope Valley Junior College as an art major, but decided to leave the following year.

" After managing a Kinney's shoe store, Van Vliet relocated to Rancho Cucamonga, California, to reconnect with Zappa, who inspired his entry into musical performance.

Van Vliet was quite shy but was eventually able to imitate the deep voice of Howlin ' Wolf with his wide vocal range.

At the same time, it became clear that Feyenoord were in an appalling financial state despite earlier comments made by chairman Van den Herik who claimed that the club was financially healthy.

After Jon Bon Jovi claimed he wanted a group name, a friend of Richard Fischer and an employee of Doc McGhee, suggested they call themselves Bon Jovi, following the example of the other famous last name bands such as Van Halen and Dokken.

Van Vliet's artistic enthusiasm became so fervent, he claimed that his parents were forced to feed him through the door in the room where he sculpted.

Van Vliet did meet McCartney in Cannes during the Magic Band's 1968 tour of Europe, though McCartney later claimed to have no recollection of this meeting.

Last, Van Vliet claimed to have gone a year and half without sleeping.

Following Vliet's death, John French claimed the 40-second spoken word track " Apes-Ma " to be an analogy of Van Vliet's deteriorating physical condition.

A surrealist, Curtis claimed " Van Gogh,

Van Leer and Akkerman were still producing much of their most seminal work, but critics claimed that the album was not as cohesive as Focus II / Moving Waves and the material did not support the length of a double album.

Though movie director George Lucas may claim American Graffiti was his youth in Modesto, thousands of Valley teenagers claimed " Van Nuys Blvd cruise night " as a vital teenage right of passage.

), Van der Linde also found that the actual text around which Forbes had built his entire theory ( Tithitattva of Raghunandana ) was actually from around AD 1500, rather than 3000 BC as claimed by Forbes.

On 30 March 2007, Van Agt claimed on the Dutch radio show Argos that the new Dutch cabinet was ' muzzling ' parliament with its decision to block an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Dutch involvement in the Iraq war.

Singer Tom Waits claimed he cried upon viewing it and Eddie Van Halen has said that when he first saw the film, everyone else in the room with him laughed as he failed to see the humor in the film.

The Van Metre family were first to settle in 1803. The town was organized in 1857 and is named for the explorer Hernando De Soto, who claimed the Louisiana Territory for Spain.

Hagar claimed that he was fired ; Van Halen claimed that he quit.

In November, Eddie's spokesperson, Janie Liszewski, claimed the Van Halen family was writing / rehearsing for a Summer 2007 tour, which Billboard magazine's website shortly confirmed.

On June 16, 2011, Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti claimed that he was invited to 5150 studios and that Eddie, Alex and Wolfgang Van Halen performed the album live, in its entirety, for Tremonti and a friend.

Producer / engineer Ross Hogarth claimed on July 31, 2011 that " he whole Van Halen record has been recorded.

The term appears to have achieved national prominence in 1840, when supporters of the American Democratic political party claimed during the 1840 United States presidential election that it stood for " Old Kinderhook ," a nickname for a Democratic presidential candidate, Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, New York, who was Andrew Jackson's protégé.

Roth has claimed that it was his idea to rename the band Van Halen, and that he actually named it after Alex.

Waters later claimed that the character of Dawn had been partly based on the mutual friend who had introduced him to Divine, Carol Wernig, while the costumes and make-up were once more designed by Van Smith to create the desired " trashy, slutty look.