Wolfgang Van Halen has reacted to a recent rant in which he was verbally assaulted by David Lee Roth for incidents that allegedly occurred when they were both in Van Halen.
Back in January, Diamond Dave posted a video to his YouTube channel that essentially served as a long voice-over monologue insulting Wolfgang. The clip started with Roth suggesting that the late Eddie Van Halen’s son benefitted from nepotism, and then went on to accuse the young musician of trying to throw Roth’s guests out of Van Halen shows. Throughout the entire rant, Roth continuously referred to Wolfgang as “this fuckin’ kid.”
In a new interview with the radio show The Morning X With Barnes & Leslie (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Wolfgang was asked why he thinks Roth would spew such “vile” venom toward him. He responded, “I guess I’m honored he even thinks about me as much as he seems to. I guess you have to take what he says with a grain of salt considering he also said that he wrote [Eddie’s iconic instrumental track] ‘Eruption’ and came up with the Frankenstein [Eddie’s red-white-and-black-striped guitar pattern]… He said he wrote all the solos that [my] dad wrote.”
Wolfgang went on to say, “I guess that’s all I can say. I seem to have been born into this Van Halen drama that has come way before me. And I guess now that my dad isn’t here to be a target, I guess he went to the next best thing.”
In the same interview, Wolfgang shot down the possibility of participating in an Eddie Van Halen tribute concert or tour, explaining, “I don’t wanna play that music without my dad.”
That said, Wolfgang is on the road with his band Mammoth WVH for much of 2024. A headlining US tour with support from Nita Strauss is currently wrapping up, but a UK/European run launch in a couple weeks, followed by another US run featuring Intervals beginning in May. From there, Mammoth WVH will support Metallica once again this summer, and open for Creed in the fall. Tickets to the upcoming shows are available here.
Meanwhile, Sammy Hagar is paying tribute to Van Halen with his upcoming “Best of All Worlds” tour, featuring a backing band of Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Jason Bonham. Pick up tickets to that outing here.
Check out Wolfgang Van Halen’s conversation with The Morning X With Barnes & Leslie below, followed by his video chat with Nita Strauss for Consequence‘s “Two for the Road” series.