Wolfgang Van Halen has opened up on how some listeners are still caught up with unfairly critiquing his guitar chops by refusing to separate him from his late father, Eddie Van Halen.
As the mastermind behind Mammoth, a band with whom he writes and records all the parts, he’s carving out a name in his own right, away from his dad’s shadow.
Back in 2021, Wolfgang had said, “Dad would rather people not try and sound like him but sound like themselves,” and, following the release of his epic third album, The End, he is proving to be doing just that.
“People tend to lose focus,” he tells Song Cake [interview below]. “They just sit there and go, ‘Oh, he doesn't play as well as his dad,’ or ‘It's not as good as this Van Halen song.’ It's all focused on the fact that I might not be tapping well enough in their opinion, or not playing well enough, rather than, hey, isn't it cool that I created this whole thing by myself with all these different pieces, all these different parts?
“It's about the song construction at the end of the day, for me, as it was for Dad, even though people seem to focus on the playing,” he develops. “It's about creating the song. Because if you don't have that, you just have shredding through scales. And there's not really much soul on that.”
To that, he points to one of the world’s foremost guitar players – one who was ranked the 8th best guitarist of the last two decades in a 2024 poll conducted by UK retailer guitar guitar, given the influence of her super stardom.
“Do you see Taylor Swift shredding scales?” Wolfgang asks. “I don't think so. She writes a song that makes you feel [something]. If you’ve got a melody and a song that makes you feel things, makes you remember somebody you lost, makes you miss something, makes you think of being back home, at the end of the day, that's what a song is about.”
That’s not to say Wolfgang doesn’t let loose. “There’s room for shreddiness,” he concedes.
He’s recently showcased his two tapping approaches – one of which a new Hot for Teacher–inspired Mammoth track springboards from.
In related news, Wolfgang has reflected on the risk of covering Van Halen songs live. Reflecting on his stint in the family band, he's also said that he often had to keep his dad in check.
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