“I’d rather bomb playing my own stuff than shack up in my dad’s legacy and play Panama”: Wolfgang Van Halen on why his “artistic and personal integrity” won’t let him play Van Halen material
Since the passing of his father Eddie Van Halen in 2020 and the subsequent rise of his band Mammoth in recent years, some fans have been asking Wolfgang Van Halen if he’ll ever play Van Halen songs live. But the multi-instrumentalist has been steadfast in his decision not to dip his toe on that pond.
On many numerous occasions, Wolfgang has addressed the seemingly unending requests for him to dabble in performing Van Halen classics live, every time shutting them down and highlighting his determination to stay true to his own artistic integrity.
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“I’m happy that people are beginning to take me seriously as my own artist and separate me from my family history,” he said in December.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy teasing said fans when the opportunity presents itself…
Like during Mammoth’s 1 April show in Cincinnati, Ohio, when he momentarily made fans believe he was about to give them what they’d been asking for for so long and play a Van Halen classic, only to rickroll them with the first verse and chorus of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.
“I always said, ‘Never say never,’ and I think tonight might be fun,” he told the crowd. “I don’t know if I’m gonna keep doing this. Maybe this can just be our little secret.”
Now, in a new interview with 105.7 The Point, Wolfgang reflects on the hilarious April Fools gag.
“If anybody’s been really paying attention, they know that I wouldn’t do anything like entertaining to play a Van Halen song,” he says. “I’ve been very forthright about [not wanting to play Van Halen songs.
“I’d rather bomb playing my own stuff than succeed by shacking up in my dad’s legacy and playing Panama every day. It’s just not what I’m interested in doing. I like to have a little bit more artistic and personal integrity than that.
“And so it was fun to kind of poke at like, ‘I’ve never done this before. This is something that people deserve.’ And you hear people start to get really excited. And then we went into Never Gonna Give You Up. We even got the thumbs up from Rick Astley himself. So at that point nobody else matters to me. He appreciated it, and that’s pretty badass.”
View a list of all of Mammoth’s upcoming tour dates via their official website.
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