Wolfgang Van Halen Bonded Over AC/DC With His Dad

Wolfgang Van Halen spoke to Classic Rock magazine and shed light on sone of the music he and his late-dad, the great Eddie Van Halen, particularly loved. Wolfgang recalled, “AC/DC was always the band that dad and I bonded over. Other than Van Halen being the most familiar classic rock-era band, AC/DC is definitely my band.”

After spending a lifetime around rock's most legendary and prestigious musicians, Wolfgang is able to have a unique take-away about fame: “We’re all the same. I think that’s the big thing. You become so jaded and separated, you listen to this music and you think you know them, and half the time they’re this 'product' that just makes a thing for you that you like. But we’re all just people.”

Wolfgang, who played all the instruments on Mammoth WVH's self-titled debut, was asked if he had the chance to drum for anybody — “who would it be?”: “I mean, it would never happen, but the idea of drumming for Nine Inch Nails. . . that’s an awesome position. I think Ilan Rubin, who’s doing it right now, is a phenomenal drummer. So I don’t wanna take his position or anything. The drums are always such an interesting part in the live band of Nine Inch Nails to me. Because it’s not always there on the album.”

He went on to say, “If I jam by myself on drums or something, I always try to challenge myself with crazy stuff, like Periphery or Animals As Leaders, or Tool. I’m not good enough to confidently play that stuff, but to attempt to is a fun exercise.”

Wolfgang Van Halen told us that fans shouldn't bank on seeing any Eddie Van Halen tribute projects emerging from the vast tape archive he left behind. Wolfgang, who is now in charge of his late-father's unreleased work housed at his 5150 California studio, explained that the process to get everything adequately cataloged is his first priority — not getting new product out ASAP: “That's not gonna happen for a long time — even without the intention of release, I want to — at the every least — archive it properly and digitize it so everything is safe for years to come. Because it's going to be an incredibly difficult process — and a very long process to properly. . . just get the material off the old tapes, that I wanna do it right.”