The rock world suffered a great loss with the passing of the drummer Taylor Hawkins, and thus, his bandmates and family found it appropriate to hold a tribute concert for the successful musician. The late legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang Van Halen made an outstanding contribution to the show by appearing on the stage along with many iconic names from the music scene besides the Foo Fighters members.
The rocker who lost his father in 2020 has been refraining from playing Van Halen songs for a while as he still struggles with the loss. Wolfgang, who performed ‘Hot For Teacher’ and ‘On Fire’ with Dave Grohl and Justin Hawkins at London Wembley Studio during Hawkins’ tribute show, explained to Guitar World’s Chris Gill what motivated him to play Van Halen’s songs.
The guitarist admitted that he wasn’t initially sure about whether he would be able to take the stage and talked a lot about it with Grohl. He mentioned that the Foo Fighters singer is a ‘sweetheart’ and asked if he would be comfortable doing it beforehand. Wolfgang revealed that he did not want to disappoint Grohl after all these sincere conversations and told the rocker that he was ‘sure.’
However, the guitarist did not feel confident enough later, and the idea overwhelmed him, so they talked about it again. The singer was very considerate and encouraged him to think about it more. Wolfgang indicated that he concluded it was the right time for him to do it after pondering about it for a while. He told the fellow musician that he needed him there to feel the courage to perform, and Grohl promised to be there with him.
Wolfgang Van Halen said the following when the interviewer said he was probably emotional being on stage without his father:
“I didn’t even know if I could do it. I had a lot of conversations with Dave. What a kind, sweetheart of a man he is. We talked a lot about it because it’s like initially, he was like, ‘What do you think? Would you be comfortable doing it?’ And initially, I didn’t want to like disappoint Dave Grohl. I was like, ‘Sure.’ But then I ended up texting him, maybe like a day later, and I was like, ‘Hey, you know…’ Or you know how it ended, actually? He was like, ‘Once you think about it, get back to me.’
So, I did. I thought a lot about it, and I just was like, ‘You know what. If there was ever a time, this is it.’ I talked to him about it, and I was just honest. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I could do this, but if I do, I really need your support. I need you up there with me. I just don’t know if I could do it by myself or whatever. I was like, ‘Whatever the incarnation of what it becomes, like, I need you there with me.’ And he was like, ‘Absolutely.'”
You can check out the video and their performance below.
