Wolfgang Van Halen Learned Entire Tremonti Setlist In One Night

Wolfgang Van Halen literally learned Tremonti's setlist during a single night of cramming before hitting the road with the band. Back in July 2012 Wolfgang jumped in cold to replace then-bassist Brian Marshall and stayed on to play bass on the band's 2015 album Cauterize and its 2016 follow-up, Dust.

While chatting with Classic Rock magazine, Wolfgang recalled getting the call to join Tremonti: “I happened to have been in New Jersey with my friends in Sevendust, where they were recording (2013's) Black Out The Sun, I was just hanging out with them, and I happened to have some of my bass equipment with me because we were just jamming and stuff. And it was late one night that I got a call from Mark Tremonti. He was like: 'Hey, man, I heard you were in town. We need a bass player. Do you think you could come by?' And sure enough, I loaded my stuff in a pick-up, and got there 45 minutes later in New York, and I learned the whole set, and we started touring the next day!”

After a hectic year releasing Mammoth WVH's debut set, a spate of band dates — not to mention a major opening spot opening for Guns N' Roses throughout the summer, Wolfgang is cooling his heels. When asked about a typical day off, he said, “Just being lazy on the couch with my girlfriend, watching TV shows or playing videogames and going to bed early. I’m a big nerd; I’m always playing videogames
if I’m not making music. On the last tour, (guitarist) Frank (Sidoris), and I would bring our systems around, hotel to hotel room, so we could play.”

As far what he's looking forward to: “(Taking) Mammoth to the next level. I’ve been working on it for so long, but in a way it’s only just beginning. So I’m really excited to just pour all my creative energy and time into Mammoth and see what I can do with it.”

A while back, we spoke with Wolfgang Van Halen and recalled getting the call that night — nearly a decade ago — to join Tremonti: “I'm like, 'Hey buddy, how's it going?' And he's like, 'Not good.' Totally depressing change in the phone call. And he told me, and I was like, 'I'll call you right back,' and I was trying to think of like a reason not to — not that I didn't want to, because there are so many reasons that I would want to. And it totally worked out.”