Wolfgang Van Halen – It’d Be Boring if I Sounded Just Like My Dad

By now, we’ve heard several of Wolfgang Van Halen’s new songs from Mammoth WVH’s upcoming self-titled debut album, so we know that it doesn’t sound like a Van Halen album. But that’s a good thing — the rocker says it would be boring if he sounded like his father, the legendary Eddie Van Halen.

Mammoth WVH’s first single “Distance” was released in the fall of 2020, just a few weeks after the guitar virtuoso succumbed to his battle with cancer. Since then, we’ve also heard “You’re to Blame,” “Don’t Back Down,” “Feel,” “Mammoth” and “Think It Over.”

Van Halen wrote all of the songs and played all of the instrumentation himself for the Mammoth WVH album. “Songwriting is a really therapeutic thing for me, so I was working out a lot of stuff with these songs,” he told People. “Most of my lyrics are written at something or someone.”

“It’s very freeing to start this path now, rather than doing what everybody would expect me to do, to get out there and just play covers of Van Halen songs. I don’t think I’d ever want to do that. Ever,” he continued.

Van Halen admitted that a lot of people have seemingly had expectations of what his music would sound like, given his relation to EVH. But he’s done his best to be an individual artist.

“I think that’s what he wanted most. I think it’d be really boring if I was just a carbon copy of him,” he said.

There was only one Eddie Van Halen, and that’s what made him so special. And there’s only Wolfgang Van Halen. Mammoth WVH is out tomorrow (June 11). Pre-order it here now. The band will be making its live debut on tour with Guns N’ Roses this summer. Tickets are available at this location.