Wolfgang Van Halen shares the first guitar his father gave him – and reveals what he was like as a guitar teacher

This week, Wolfgang Van Halen released his debut single under the Mammoth WVH banner, and gave a wide-ranging interview with The Howard Stern Show where he divulged Van Halen’s plans for a huge reunion tour, as well as a variety of other topics – including the first guitar his father, Eddie Van Halen, gave to him.

As he relates in the video above, Wolfgang received the guitar as a Christmas present, accompanied by a Playboy card – which was his father’s way of saying, “Play, boy!”

Elsewhere in the video, Wolfgang reveals that his dad may have been one of the greatest guitarists of all time, but he wasn’t much of a guitar teacher.

“I’d ask him how to play something and then he just proceeds to be Eddie Van Halen,” he laughs. “That’s a very tough bar to reach as a beginner, so it’s like, ‘Oh, OK…’”

In another extract from the full interview, Wolfgang revealed Van Halen were planning a “kitchen-sink” reunion tour with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth, prior to his father’s lung cancer diagnosis.

Michael Astley-Brown
Editor-in-Chief, GuitarWorld.com

Mike has been Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com since 2019, and an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict for far longer. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and 15 years' experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. His writing also appears in the The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock as Maebe.