Wolfgang Van Halen's debut single, Distance, is dedicated to his father
The "incredibly personal" song will be released Monday, November 16
Update (11.16): Wolfgang Van Halen has now officially released Distance.
The first solo album from Wolfgang Van Halen – son, of course, of the late Eddie Van Halen – has been many, many years in the making. This coming Monday (November 16) though, the world will finally get a taste of the long-anticipated album in the form of its first single, Distance.
Dedicated to his father, Distance was one of Eddie's favorite songs from the as-yet-untitled record, which will be released by Explorer1 MusicGroup.
"Distance is a song that was initially written for the debut album, but was going to be held for a later time," Wolfgang said.
"As my pop continued to struggle with various health issues, I was imagining what my life would be like without him and how terribly I'd miss him. While this song is incredibly personal, I think anyone can relate to the idea of having a profound loss in their own life.
"I never anticipated Distance would be the first song of mine that people would hear, but I also thought my father would be here to celebrate its release along with me. This is for him."
Along with the song's release, the Van Halen bassist will also reportedly appear on The Howard Stern Show on November 16.
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Before his passing last month at the age of 65, Eddie described the sound of Wolfgang's debut album as "AC/DC meets Van Halen meets aggressive pop. The riffs are catchy. It’s a little of everything and sounds like a freight train coming at you. I’ve never heard anything quite like it. It’s so powerful that I’m jealous.”
From that description, and the snippets we've already heard, we're expecting something pretty amazing.
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.