Wolfgang Van Halen admits that he wasn’t sure if he could play his father Eddie Van Halen‘s parts when he agreed to do Van Halen songs at last month’s Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts.
Wolfgang tells Guitar World, “I didn’t even know if I could do it. I had a lot of conversations with Dave [Grohl]. What a kind sweetheart of a man he is. We talked a lot about [it]. Initially he was like, ‘What do you think? Would you be comfortable doing this?’ Initially, I didn’t wanna disappoint Dave Grohl. And I was like, ‘Sure.’”
Wolfgang says Grohl asked him to mull it over some more so he knew that he was making the right call. “I thought a lot about it and I was like, ‘You know what, if there was ever a time, this is it.’ I talked to him about it and I was just honest. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I could do this, but if I do I need your support. I need you up there with me.’ I was like, ‘Whatever the incarnation of what it becomes, I need you there with me,’ and he was like, ‘Absolutely.’”
He adds that once they got to London and had their first rehearsal with Justin Hawkins of The Darkness he knew that it was going to be worth it. “[When] he hit it, it was like, ‘This is gonna be amazing.’ It was really exciting. It was really special, man. I’m super-happy and proud with how everything came to be.”
Wolfgang marked two years since the passing of his dad on Thursday by posting a photo of them and writing “2 years and not a single day has gone by where you weren’t on my mind. I’m trying to do my best and hold it together but it’s just not the same without you here, Pop. I love and miss you more than you could possibly imagine.”
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