Wolfgang Van Halen has opened up about what he sees as the personal risk of stepping into his father’s musical shoes onstage.
The vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, who played alongside his late father Eddie and uncle Alex in Van Halen between 2006 and 2015, has kept his live performances of the band’s music to an absolute minimum since Eddie’s passing in 2020. In fact, he’s only revisited Van Halen songs twice in public.
The first came during the 2022 Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, where Wolfgang teamed up with Dave Grohl, The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, and Josh Freese to tear into On Fire and Hot for Teacher. The second time arrived in 2024 at the Welcome to Rockville festival, where he surprised fans by shredding Eruption after a playful fake-out that made it look like Grohl was about to play the iconic solo.
Before those moments, Wolfgang had deliberately avoided performing Van Halen tracks, focusing instead on carving out his own identity with his solo project, Mammoth WVH. Speaking to Metal Hammer, he admitted the choice to finally give in was a heavy one:
“When Dave asked me in 2022, I thought, ‘This is either going to be the perfect closing note to Van Halen or it’s going to completely ruin my life,’” he recalled.
Pressed on why it carried that much weight, he explained: “There are so many people who hate me, who say I’ll never measure up and that I need Van Halen to matter. So, if the one time I dared to play those songs I completely botched it, I would have never lived it down. That’s why I treated it with the utmost seriousness.”
Even with those standout performances behind him, Wolfgang has made it clear that Van Halen tracks won’t become part of Mammoth’s regular setlist. In a June chat with Drumeo, he admitted that both he and his uncle Alex feel a deep emotional distance from the material since Eddie’s death.
“I’m just not interested in playing it anymore without Dad,” he said. “Alex feels the same way. Sure, I’ll pick up the guitar and jam for fun sometimes. And if someone like Dave Grohl asks me, of course I’ll say yes. But in general, it’s a tough and painful thing for me.”
Instead, Wolfgang is channeling his energy into new music. Mammoth WVH’s third studio album, The End, is set for release on October 24 via BMG. Its latest single, I Really Wanna, dropped on September 11, offering a glimpse of where his journey is heading—on his own terms.