When he started his own music career outside of playing with his dad, Eddie Van Halen in Van Halen, Wolfgang Van Halen named his project Mammoth WVH, which he first got his father’s permission to do.
But why? Well, “Mammoth” is a throwback to the band name Eddie and his brother Alex used when they first started playing with David Lee Roth, before changing the band name to their own last name.
During a recent Q&A event, Wolfgang was discussing making music in the wak of his icoinc father’s death, which recently includes drppping the “WVH” from his band name, and said candidly: “Man, it is a fucking tight rope to walk, with the shadow I’m under and the expectations.”
“I wanna be able to have the opportunity to reference my lineage, but not copy it and just put a flag in it and sit there and play ‘Panama’ for everybody every night,” Wolfgang added, via Metal Injection. “I wanna be able to be my own person.”
Wolfgang went on to explain that after he had the idea to use the Mammoth name, he made sure to clear it with his father first. “It was supposed to be a direct reference,” he said. “I think we were on that last [Van Halen] tour. And I was like, “Hey, Pop, is that cool if I call my band Mammoth?’ And he was like, ‘Fuck, yeah.’”
It was way back in 2013 that Wolfgang began working on solo material, but he didn;t bring it to his father until 2016. “I don’t know why I was so nervous to ask him because, God, he was the most supportive person other than my mom in my life.”
Now, Mammoth is putting out their third album, and Wolfgang has found himself more energized in renovating the band’s sound and trying some new things.
“I think what I recognized during this past recording for what may or may not be coming soon, was I was uncomfortable, and I thought that was a cool thing because I was starting to tread ground that I don’t think I would normally just be doing the same thing,” he said. “I was enjoying the comfortability of going, like, ‘Is this what I would do? Or is this something new or something more mature?”
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