“If I don’t do this right, my life will be over”: Wolfgang Van Halen on the extreme anxiety he felt performing Van Halen songs during Taylor Hawkins tribute shows
Since the passing of his father Eddie Van Halen in 2020, Wolfgang Van Halen has, on numerous occasions, explained why he doesn’t want to make a career out of playing classic Van Halen songs, and instead carve his own musical path.
He has largely stuck to his guns on that one, to date releasing three albums of original material with his band Mammoth: Mammoth WVH (2021), Mammoth II (2023), and The End (2025), and supporting some of rock’s most revered names live including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Foo Fighters.
But despite mostly charting his own musical journey, Wolfgang made an exception back in 2022, when he performed a selection of classic Van Halen tracks during two concerts paying tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
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Specifically, the multi-instrumentalist and bandleader played three of Van Halen’s biggest tracks: On Fire, Hot For Teacher and Panama.
Speaking in a recent interview with Andy Guitar at last week’s Download Festival, Wolfgang elaborated on his decision to perform Van Halen songs, saying “it was like closing a book”.
“It was my way of being able to not only honour Taylor, but honour my dad by playing some of his material… And so it was definitely a do-or-die thing for me,” he says [via Blabbermouth].
Wolfgang also recounts the severe anxiety he experienced prior to the show, as the weight of what he was about to do became more and more apparent.
“I was losing it that day,” he says. “‘Cause to me, it was, ‘If I don’t do this right, if I don’t serve this justice, then my life will be over.’ [laughs].
“I ended up playing it pretty all right. I still made mistakes, but it was just all live and in the heat of the moment. But it was really special. Being able to have Dave and Justin and Josh there supporting me, being able to play with three idols of mine supporting such an emotional and difficult thing for me to do was really special, and I don’t think I could’ve done it without them. Yeah, that was a day of catharsis, for sure.”
Since 2022, Wolfgang has remained adamant that he won’t revisit his father’s catalogue during live shows, but he’s taken pleasure in teasing fans who are hungry for him to do so.
Indeed, during a recent show in Cincinnati, he ‘rickrolled’ the crowd by pretending to gear up to play a Van Halen song, only to perform a cover of Rick Astley’s now-memified classic, Never Gonna Give You Up.
The post “If I don’t do this right, my life will be over”: Wolfgang Van Halen on the extreme anxiety he felt performing Van Halen songs during Taylor Hawkins tribute shows appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
