On the road for the US leg of Mammoth WVH’s supporting tour for ‘Mammoth II,’ Wolfgang Van Halen recently talked to Spin about why he didn’t rely on Van Halen’s music for success. Revealing his wish to follow in Eddie Van Halen’s footsteps, he explained:
“I know Dad taught himself, and I wanted to follow the same way. It was important that I develop my own skills and my own sound. That’s helped me, or else you’d be listening to some shitty Van Halen cover band.”
The singer, who refused to cover the band’s songs during live performances, also commented:
“Given the opportunity to succeed by playing [Van Halen’s] ‘Panama,’ or to fail by playing my music, I would choose to fail.”
More About Why He Avoids Covers
Before his first tour in 2021, upon some fan questions, WVH said he wouldn’t cover any Van Halen songs on stage. He later expressed relief at the fact that there were no requests for covers during the shows that kicked off in Kansas and Illinois that year.
The singer detailed the mindset behind his decision to avoid singing his father’s songs in a chat with Today a while ago:
“Songwriting is a very therapeutic thing for me. I can get through things that I can’t through talking or otherwise. That’s a big reason why I don’t ever want to play Van Halen songs. Because I only want to play with [my father]. And he’s not here to play it.”
The Eddie Van Halen Song At The Vocalist’s Wedding
The Mammoth WVH vocalist expressed unwillingness to share the unreleased Van Halen material for a similar reason by saying he couldn’t make a decision in his late father’s name. But one of Eddie Van Halen’s songs found a place for itself at the singer’s wedding on October 15.
During the ceremony for his marriage to Andraia Allsop, the singer walked down the aisle with his mother, Valerie Bertinelli, to the song called ‘316,’ which the guitarist wrote for his son before passing away in 2020.
