Earlier this year, the news of some form of a Van Halen tour, or a tribute tour, organized by drummer Alex Van Halen, was in the works at some point. Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted broke the news through an interview with The Palm Beach Post, claiming that he was contacted for the bassist spot by Alex. This was later confirmed by Joe Satriani, revealing that the whole thing was discussed although no concrete plans were made. He explained:
“These things are always happening in the music industry, and you’re supposed to keep very quiet about it [laughs], because sometimes they don’t work out. There’s usually about 10 crazy ideas that float around and musicians are always, like, ‘Okay, I won’t say anything about this ’cause it may not work out. I don’t wanna hurt this person’s feelings or disrupt any other business plans.’ So, yeah, we were all pretty shocked that Jason wanted to go public with it ’cause we were all sworn to silence. [Laughs]”
In a new interview given to Rolling Stone, Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang finally spoke up on the matter. The first time he publicly addressed the issue, he offered:
“What I can say is that there was an attempt at doing something. But, you know, I don’t like to speak negatively about people, but there are some people that make it very difficult to do anything when it comes to Van Halen.”
He adds:
“After being in Van Halen for a long time, I really have strived to have an environment where there is no walking on eggshells and there is no personality that you have to deal with. It’s just guys having fun making music and just having a good time. But, you know, from my time in Van Halen, there was always some stuff that gets in the way from just making music and having a good time. And, I think, that’s what happened.”
“I would love to just sit here and say everything and say the truth. There are plenty of interviews my dad did, where he straight up just said everything. And people hated him for it and thought he was lying.”
“So I could just say shit, but people have already decided how they feel about things, facts or not. So I can say the facts. But that may not align with how certain people feel. I know how Van Halen fans get. They are very motivated by which specific people they like in the band. And it’s just not worth it.”
“Just, we made an attempt, and some people can be hard to work with, and made it not happen.”
Wolfgang further adds that all the shots in Van Halen were usually up to his uncle Alex, including this rumored tour. However, as he explains, the project fell apart before Wolf even got the chance to give it his blessing. He explained:
“It didn’t even get to that point. It was in such an early stage that it never even got off the ground.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Wolfgang addressed the “one person” that spoke up and ruined everything. Reminded about Led Zeppelin and how they jammed with Steven Tyler instead of Robert Plant and how that never meant that something came out of it, Wolf said:
“Not at all. And just because one person [former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted] decided to talk about it when they weren’t supposed to, it fucked everything up.”
But he also adds:
“That wasn’t the end of it, actually. It was already not happening.”
But here we come to the most interesting part. The interviewer asked, “if someone were to assume that the main problem was a certain singer with three initials, what would you say to that?” Wolfgang simply said:
“I would say ‘Do your research on the history of Van Halen, and come to your conclusions.'”
Photo: Thomson200 (2021 Shaky Knees – Mammoth WVH (1) Wolfgang Van Halen (cropped)), Abby Gillardi (Van Halen-8597 (20643101375))
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