Wolfgang Says Eddie Van Halen Wasn’t In Charge Of Van Halen

During a recent interview with SPIN Magazine, Mammoth WVH founder Wolfgang Van Halen opened up about his former band, Van Halen. According to the bassist, many people assumed his late father Eddie Van Halen was the bandleader whereas it was his uncle Alex Van Halen who was in charge.

Many fans often consider the most visible member of the band as the band’s leader whereas these bands commonly have a member who is in charge that doesn’t necessarily like being under the spotlight. Therefore, numerous bands have a leader no fans see coming at first.

For instance, countless fans think AC/DC‘s leader is Angus Young while it was his late brother Malcolm Young who was calling the shots and directing the band. As for Metallica, Lars Ulrich is the boss within the band instead of the common belief that it’s James Hetfield who’s in charge.

The same thing goes with Led Zeppelin as well. While frontman Robert Plant stole the show with his charismatic stage presence, it was lead guitarist Jimmy Page who was running the band in terms of its publicity and sound as Plant himself once admitted.

This generally accepted idea applied to Van Halen as well. According to many fans, it’s late guitarist Eddie Van Halen who was the true leader of the successful band. However, the truth is recently revealed by his son Wolfgang Van Halen during an interview.

According to Wolfgang, fans love thinking that it was his late father who was running the band while this idea isn’t true. In fact, it’s his uncle Alex Van Halen who was in charge of Van Halen, especially when it comes to dealing with public statements and press releases.

According to SPIN, Wolfgang sid:

“The thing with Van Halen that people should have learned right now is that if it doesn’t come from them, it’s not true. And Al has not made any public statements about this. So I wouldn’t expect it. If he didn’t say it, it’s probably not true.

People love to talk about dad and the way he ran the band, but that’s not really true. Al’s the kind of the one who was in charge and in the way that the band publicly sort of related.”

It may sound surprising that the most silent member of Van Halen when it comes to appearing on interviews and social media accounts is also the member who was handling the public side of the band. Yet, it’s actually not unexpected once fans consider the common outcome of this misconception with multiple examples in the past.