“In my mind, it would have ruined my life had I messed up. I took it very seriously”: Wolfgang Van Halen took a gamble when he decided to cover his dad’s songs – and it paid off

Wolfgang Van Halen has spent much of his career attempting to step out from under his late father’s shadow, and has worked to forge a musical journey of his own via Mammoth.

That said, many fans still hope to see him play his late father’s best electric guitar licks live, but Wolfgang is all too aware of the risk that comes with trying to pull them off.

Mammoth has allowed Wolfgang to move forward musically after Eddie Van Halen’s passing. The project finds him writing and recording all the instruments – a practice that separates him from the late Eddie Van Halen.

Wolfgang has, however, played Van Halen songs live a few times since his father passed in 2020. He played On Fire and Hot For Teacher at the Taylor Hawkins tribute shows, and later reunited with the Foo Fighters for a fantastic Eruption-themed shred gag in May 2024. He says he put it on the line for those gigs.

“I was like, ‘This is either going to be a nice coda to Van Halen or it’s going to ruin my life,’” a reflective Wolfgang tells Metal Hammer. “I don’t think I would have ever been able to live it down – with how many people who hate me and say, ‘You’ll never be good enough and you have to play Van Halen to be relevant’ – if the one time I played Van Halen on my own, I ruined it and messed up.

“In my mind, it would have ruined my life had I messed up. I took it very seriously.”

Back in June, Wolfgang went as far as to reveal that he’s since stopped listening to Van Halen, although he is keeping his dad close by recording some choice Mammoth riffs and licks on his legendary Frankenstein. And with Mammoth album number three releasing in October, he’s looking to push further away from the family name to carve a legacy out in his own right.

Mammoth have recently dropped the WVH tag from their name as the band readies their third album, having launched their forthcoming LP with The End, which includes a nod to Hot For Teacher in the music video.

Meanwhile, Sammy Hagar is still holding out hope that Wolfgang will appear at a Best of All Worlds show in the future. Going off what he’s saying here, that might be a bit optimistic, although he did admit in June that there would be exceptions to the rule.

“I’ll play it for fun every now and then,” he continues in his Metal Hammer chat. “If Dave Grohl comes to me and goes like, ‘Hey, you wanna do this?’ Like, ‘Yes, Dave Grohl, I would like to do that with you.’ But, overall, it’s really a tough thing for me.”