From Guitar World:
Nov 19, 2008
Van Halen: Like Father, Like Son
By Chris Gill
Originally printed in Guitar World, April 2008
Eddie Van Halen put the fire in the group that bears his name. It took his
son, Wolfgang, to rekindle the passion and get the group on the road for
one of the most anticipated reunion tours in rock history. In this world
exclusive interview, the father-and-son duo talks about working and
performing together in Van Halen.
Is musical talent genetically inherited? If your test sample is the Van
Halen family, the answer undoubtedly would be yes and the proof would be
the current Van Halen tour, which features the Van Halen brothers–Alex
and Ed–on drums and guitar respectively, as well as Ed’s 16-year-old son
Wolfgang on bass. Although Wolfgang picked up the bass less than two years
ago, his comfort on arena stages in front of crowds of 20,000 fans
suggests that it was always in his DNA to be a performer.
Wolfgang’s membership in the band may now seem like fate, but Ed was
careful from the beginning to let Wolfgang’s musical interests and talents
develop naturally, even though Ed often hinted that he hoped his kid would
follow in his footsteps. “I’m going to let Wolfgang be whatever he wants
to be,” he stated in 1995 when Wolfgang was only four. “I don’t see how he
won’t somehow be into music, being exposed to it all the time. But I’m not
going to force him to play piano or take music lessons like my parents did
to me.”
Wolfgang’s guest appearances on guitar during Van Halen’s 2004 tour showed
that Ed’s kid had not only taken an interest in music but he had also
quickly developed true talent as a musician. Even so, devoted fans were
taken by complete surprise when Ed revealed in late 2006 that Wolfgang was
Van Halen’s new bass player. A few months later when news leaked that
David Lee Roth was returning as the band’s vocalist and a tour was in the
works, critics wondered if Wolfgang was truly qualified. Playing one of
the most anticipated tours of the past 20 years is a hell of a first job
for anyone, let alone someone who was just 16 years old and never played
in any other bands before.
What seemed like a risky move on paper proved instead to be an
overwhelming success as Wolfgang breathed new life into the band with the
right balance of youthful enthusiasm and devoted reverence to the band’s
classic songs, all of which were recorded years before Wolfgang was even
born. While the tour gives Van Halen fans an opportunity to see the band
with David Lee Roth again, the presence of Wolfgang onstage opens the door
to a new chapter in the band’s history. What lies ahead in the future is
anyone’s guess, but with Wolfgang joining the band its foundation is now
stronger than ever as is its potential to grow in new directions.
Talking with Ed and Wolfgang, several unusual qualities become evident.
There’s no generation gap between the two, but more importantly they
reveal an undeniable mutual respect and admiration for each other that
even Wolfgang’s occasional rebelliousness and Ed’s playful displays of
parental authority can’t hide. The two are truly in awe of each other’s
talents. One gets the feeling that Wolfgang would be a huge Van Halen fan
even if his dad wasn’t in the band and that Ed would want to make music
with Wolfgang even if Wolfgang wasn’t his son.
With rave reviews coming in for the band’s current tour and a lifetime of
possibilities lying ahead to explore, the future for Van Halen as a band
looks very bright thanks to the addition of a new family member. As the
saying goes, the family that plays together stays together, and this
family positively jams.
GUITAR WORLD How did Wolfgang join the band? Did you ask him to join?
WOLFGANG VAN HALEN I didn’t ask to join.
ED VAN HALEN I asked him. We were in the studio one day. Al was in the
drum room. The drum room is in the back of the studio so we couldn’t see
Al and Al couldn’t see us.
WOLFGANG We were standing behind the console in the control room. That’s
where we stand when we rehearse.
ED That way I can engineer and it’s so much easier to monitor all the
instruments. It’s really fuckin’ loud and crystal clear. It’s like making
a record, because I have the ability to mix while we’re playing. So
Wolfgang picked up a bass, and I put the bass in Al’s headphones.
WOLFGANG It was in the summer of ’06. My dad had said, “Hey, do you want
to jam?” and I said, “Sure.”
ED We were just jamming on some stuff. I’ll never forget it. You played
the blonde five-string bass with four strings on it.
WOLFGANG Oh yeah!
ED Al had no idea that it was you. I put you in his headphones. It was the
first time in 30 years that Al’s had bass in his headphones. Al said,
“Hey! How are you playing bass and guitar at the same time?” I got on the
talkback and said, “Say hi, Wolfie!” and you went [in high voice], “Hi,
Uncle Al!” Your voice was a lot higher then. Al went, “Who’s playing
bass?” I told him it was Wolfie, and it blew Al’s mind.
WOLFGANG After that, Al asked if I wanted to jam again. I said, “Yeah!”
ED That’s when I asked him if he’d like to be the bass player in Van
Halen. He said, “Yeah, as long as I don’t have to do a certain thing,”
which I won’t mention. [laughs deviously]
WOLFGANG I can say that: I said, “Sure. I just don’t want to do a bass
solo.”
ED Even though you do have a couple of solo spots that shows everyone that
you are a world-class player.
WOLFGANG Yeah, whatever. Then we just made it a religious thing on every
Wednesday and Saturday to play. We just kept playing relentlessly and
eventually we thought, Hey, we’re pretty damn good!
GW So in the beginning everything happened organically.
WOLFGANG We didn’t lay out a plan or anything. It just fell together. We
played together a good four months without any vocals, and we just looked
at each other and knew it was awesome.
ED It’s like Dave says, “Three parts original, one part inevitable.” And
it was inevitable.
GW Wolfgang, you play several instruments–guitar, drums, keyboards. What
drove you toward the bass?
WOLFGANG Well, it was the only open spot. [everyone laughs] And the people
filling the other spots–drums and guitar–are the two greatest players of
those instruments in the frickin’ world. I find the bass safe. You don’t
have to go out on the line.
ED I remember another thing you said at the very beginning: “Can I just
groove?”
WOLFGANG I just like to be there to groove and keep the song going.
GW Your dad always says he wishes he was the bass player.
WOLFGANG I love being a bass player. It’s just me and Al–a groove
section. Just boom, boom, boom, and we’re good.
ED He is so on. Hey Wolf, wanna switch gigs?
GW There are huge expectations on you, Ed.
WOLFGANG But you’ve got to admit that there were huge expectations on me
before the first show.
ED Before we went on tour a lot of people were saying that Wolfgang got
the gig just because he’s my son. But after that first gig, forget it.
It’s just hands down, hands up, hands sideways: he’s a musician and a Van
Halen.
GW Was the time in between when the tour was announced and when you played
the first show difficult?
WOLFGANG I just wanted to get it over with. I wanted to be where we are
now. There was so much weight on my shoulders to fill the shoes and prove
that I could do it. I knew I could do it, but I wanted to say, “Everybody,
hey, I can do it!”
ED We rehearsed probably six months before Dave showed up. We were almost
over-rehearsed. We got to the point where we were goofing around.
WOLFGANG That’s when we started playing “Little Dreamer” in double time.
ED When Dave walked in it blew his freakin’ mind.
WOLFGANG That night was magical. That was the first time I heard vocals
with everything.
ED Dave couldn’t believe how good you are.
GW Wolf you’ve gone directly from rehearsing with your dad and uncle to
playing some of the biggest venues in the world. Was it difficult for you
to make that transition?
WOLFGANG Because we rehearsed so frickin’ much, from spending six months
in 5150, then at Center Staging and then for a few weeks at the L.A.
Forum, I felt that we had done enough preparation for me to feel safe.
Plus when you’re on the stage, you’re far enough away from people that you
feel comfortable. Sometimes I can just close my eyes and feel like we’re
in that room at 5150 again.
ED It’s a lot different than rehearsing in the studio. It’s probably more
comfortable than being in the control room with a bunch of people staring
at you.
WOLFGANG When there are only 10 people around, I get nervous. But when
there are so many other people, I feel more comfortable. Then it’s just
the four of us doing our thing.
GW How did your dad help you prepare for the tour?
WOLFGANG He didn’t really help me prepare. He just told me what not to do.
ED I taught him what my dad taught me, which is you can learn from
everyone what to do and what not to do.
WOLFGANG That, and practice.
ED Actually, he helped me more than I helped him.
WOLFGANG Yeah, I had to teach him how to play the songs again.
ED Because I couldn’t remember the damn songs, and I don’t know how to
work a fuckin’ iPod. He had one with all the songs on it. We hooked it up
in the control room, and he’d go, “No dad, it goes like this!”
GW Did you teach yourself how to play the songs?
WOLFGANG Yeah, I did. The night before we started practicing, I sat down
in my music room and I listened to every single song and just played to
them. I didn’t do exactly everything that’s on the recordings. I put my
own spin on I kept it as close as possible but added just a
little…spice. A little WVH flair. [laughs]
GW Ed, What’s it like to be onstage with your son as a band member, not
just a special guest like he was on the previous tour?
ED It’s an amazing feeling. I’m just so truly blessed. I have pictures of
me sitting in the racquetball court in my pajamas with an acoustic guitar
and Wolfgang is probably just two-and-a-half-feet tall. I’ll never forget
the day I saw his foot tapping along in beat! I knew then, I couldn’t wait
for the day I’d be able to make music with my son. I don’t know what more
I could ask for.
GW Even after playing about 40 shows together, do you still have moments?
ED Oh yeah. Every night. Sometimes we actually talk while we’re playing.
I’ll go, “Hey! Are you all right?” because sometimes he’ll look at me
funny. When I give him a kiss or a high five or a low five, it’s from the
heart. It ain’t bullshit. It’s just pure love.
WOLFGANG That doesn’t happen to me every night, but sometimes when I’m
playing I’ll forget to sing or play a certain note I’ll look up and go,
Whoa, this is crazy! That feeling is always there, but I don’t always have
time to think about it because I have a job to do.
ED I trip. You blow my mind. To be playing together is something I’ve
always dreamed of. Believe it or not, I didn’t know you’d be this good. He
scares the shit out of me. He plays drums like a pro, too. The first thing
he does in the house is start playing “And the Cradle Will Rock” on the
piano. Once Janie, my girlfriend, walked by and said, “Oh! I thought that
was you.” But it was Wolfie. Drums, guitar, bass, keyboards…shit! And
singing!
GW What’s it like to be in a band with your dad and uncle?
WOLFGANG It feels right.
ED That’s the perfect way to put it. It just feels right.
WOLFGANG I don’t ever go, “This is weird. I’m with a bunch of older
people.” I feel like we’re all the same age. It’s just what we do.
ED I was going to say the same thing. Every now and then when we’re
onstage playing, I’ll look at him and go, God, that’s my son! He’s only
16, but he’s not “16.” He’s an equal. Age doesn’t matter.
WOLFGANG There’s nobody else my age on the tour, but I feel like I’m an
equal. I hope that everybody thinks of me the same way.
ED I believe they do, but you wouldn’t believe the legalities we had to go
through to have him be the bass player in Van Halen.
WOLFGANG I still have school.
GW Watching the band play, it’s like Wolfgang has been a member for a long
time. Why do you think you get along so well together?
WOLFGANG We’re blood.
ED It’s innate. The way Wolfgang plays bass is very similar to the way I
play guitar. It’s very unorthodox. His style is interesting. When other
bands come by, like Green Day, I’ll go, “Close your eyes and listen to
him.” People freak out. [Poison guitarist] C.C. DeVille left me a message
and he didn’t compliment me at all. He did say I was on top of my game,
but my son really impressed him. Do you know how proud that makes me? I
couldn’t ask for more. Not only has he proven himself but he also takes
this stuff further. He does all the wicked shit on the bass that I do on
guitar. It’s fucking amazing.
WOLFGANG It’s like a genetic metronome. When we end songs, we don’t even
look at each other. We all feel it. It’s good music and I love playing it.
GW How are your friends reacting to your first job?
WOLFGANG My friends just see me as me. I’m Wolfie, doing my thing.
ED But they must trip.
WOLFGANG They do. But they all really support me.
ED I’m sure they’re proud of you.
GW What music do you listen to?
WOLFGANG Mainly rock stuff. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I really like
Tool, which is one of my favorite bands, and I love Primus and Sevendust,
too.
ED You were totally into AC/DC for a while.
WOLFGANG AC/DC is in all of our hearts because they rule.
ED You listen to us, too.
WOLFGANG Not any more. I haven’t listened to us for a while.
ED That’s because you’re playing it now. I remember when I picked you up
from school one day and there were boxes of records sitting in the shop at
the studio. You looked at them and went, “Is this all you dad?”
WOLFGANG Oh yeah. I probably was like five.
ED No, I think you were 10.
WOLFGANG Whatever.
ED It blew my mind that I totally forgot to turn him on to all the music
that I’ve written. All he knew was what he heard on the radio.
WOLFGANG Like “Jump,” and that was it.
ED I’ll never forget when we were coming home from Castle Park [a family
entertainment center]. “Hot for Teacher” came on the radio and Wolf was
going, “Who is that singing?” I said, “That’s Dave.”
GW When did you start listening to your dad’s recordings with David Lee
Roth? What do you like about them?
WOLFGANG I’m not sure when I started.
ED You had to listen to them to learn them.
WOLFGANG Yeah, but I’m not sure when I started. I love it for the same
reason everybody else loves it. It’s awesome. It’s just good music. It
lasts. It was made a while ago, and it still lives today.
GW Van Halen music has never lost its adolescent appeal. For example,
“Panama” was featured in the movie Superbad, and it fit perfectly even
though the movie is set in the present day.
WOLFGANG I love that movie.
GW What is it about Van Halen music that makes it so timeless?
WOLFGANG It rocks.
ED It just lives and breathes. It’s real. It’s not contrived, premeditated
or anything. It’s just whatever comes out. If you try to write a song to
please people and they don’t like it, you’re fucked because you’re not
pleasing yourself, for one. And if they don’t like it, you’re double
fucked.
GW You write a lot of material. Do you have a gauge in your head that lets
you know when something is ready to serve up to the table?
ED There’s a lot of stuff I like that the rest of the guys don’t. It’s
like that with “Panama.” I rarely start on the one, and Al hears what I’m
playing backward. I’ll never forget when I wrote “Little Dreamer,” which
is one of the few where I do start on the one and he played backward to
that, too. Onstage when we’re playing…
WOLFGANG …Oh God, I have to watch you! At the end of “Unchained” we have
to go eight or nine times before we freakin’ end! Sometimes it’s three.
Sometimes it’s five. It’s always an odd number.
ED I can’t count for some reason. It’s always threes or fives for some
reason. I only go by feel.
WOLFGANG And sometimes that feeling is wrong! [laughs] But we always
somehow manage to pull it together for the ending.
ED We fall down the stairs and land on our feet together. Onstage, I look
at Wolfie because he can count!
GW Has it always been that way, even before Wolfgang?
ED Yeah! But now I’ve got two people to help me, because both Al and
Wolfie can count.
GW How do you approach your solo section every night?
ED There are certain things that I feel the fans really want to hear me
play. “Eruption.” “Cathedral.”
WOLFGANG “Spanish Fly.” The “Little Guitars” intro.
ED I noodle a bit. About the only complaint I get is that my solo is too
long. Half the time I’m looking over at Matt Bruck and going, Shit! Where
do I go from here? Sometimes I don’t know where to go because I forget all
of the stuff that I’ve done. It’s like what you asked me about why Van
Halen’s music has held up. It’s because it’s spontaneous and real. I’m not
saying there’s no thought behind it. Obviously it has to have some kind of
structure. But spontaneity is the main ingredient.
GW Now that you’ve thoroughly road tested the EVH 5150 III amps, how do
you feel they’ve improved or changed your tone?
ED It’s just a natural progression. It’s an extension of me, just like the
guitar, which I named after my son even before he was in the band. The
tattoo on my arm ["Wolfgang"] says it all.
GW You still use an old-school setup with a guitar cable and wedge
monitors, and you control your own effects from an onstage pedal board.
Why?
ED Because that’s what I like. I don’t like digital shit. My pedal board
is homemade. It’s all about sound. It’s that simple. Wireless is wireless,
and it’s digital. Hopefully somewhere along the line somebody will add
more ones to the zeros. When digital first started, I swear I could hear
the gap between the ones and the zeros.
GW The wah-wah pedal is the newest addition to your rig.
ED It might appear that way to you, but I’ve used a wah since the early
Nineties. I dig it, too. I use it more now than I ever have. I couldn’t
afford one back when we were starting out, but I always wanted one. The
reason why I never used any kind of fuzz or distortion box is because I
couldn’t afford them.
GW What kind of wah are you using?
ED It’s my own model made to my own specs by Dunlop. I just go by my ear
and tell people this is how I want it to sound. A lot of people don’t
quite understand. Matt Bruck and I bust our asses to get people to
understand what tone means. We’re tone chasers, and until we get there we
don’t stop. That’s what keeps us going.
GW You’ve brought a lot of different Wolfgang guitars on this tour, but
you usually play one particular one at a show. However, at another show
you may play another entirely different Wolfgang guitar that night. How do
you choose which one you want to play that night?
ED The Wolfgang guitars I have are prototypes. I generally play the latest
prototype. Hopefully it sounds better than the previous one, and if it
does, I end up playing it. I like the white one I’m playing better than
the sunburst one, which I like better than the black ones.
GW Wolfgang, how did you choose your bass rig?
WOLFGANG Matt Bruck helped me a lot with the Sound City amps. When we were
practicing Matt told me that he had these really cool amps, and we hooked
them up. They rule.
ED Nobody gets a bass sound like he does. He uses EVH Brand 5150-III
4x12s. The same cabinets with EVH Celestion 12-inch speakers that I use.
WOLFGANG They’re really out of the ordinary, but it works.
ED Everything starts here. [Ed holds up Wolfgang's fingers.]
WOLFGANG I split the signal between the amp and a DI, and I have a preamp
as well. But the amp is the meat and potatoes of the sound.
GW What basses are you playing?
WOLFGANG I’m playing a Franken-bass, if you want to call it that. It’s
based on my dad’s Frankenstein guitar…
ED Except it has four strings instead of six.
WOLFGANG I got the red one for Christmas last year. Chip Ellis built it,
and he told me he was going to make a backup, so I asked him to paint it
blue. Ever since I was little I wanted my own stripes. Blue is my favorite
color, so we tried it and I think it looks pretty cool.
GW Do you eventually see yourself having a solo segment onstage?
WOLFGANG I don’t. I like having my own moment for five seconds, like the
“So This Is Love?” intro and the tapping part in “Romeo Delight.” That’s
enough for me. I’m more than fulfilled being a team player.
GW What was your best personal moment so far on this tour?
WOLFGANG When we did the rehearsal show for friends and family in L.A., it
was just the beginning and I didn’t feel I had ripened. When we came back
to L.A. and did the first Staples Center show, I felt a sense of
accomplishment. I was much a better player. I felt like a member of the
band.
ED For me it’s the fact that I get to play with my son, my brother and
Dave. Every night is special. Doing an interview with my son right now is
special. It’s all special.
