VAN HALEN and
TREMONTI bass player
Wolfgang Van Halen grew up as the son of one of the greatest living guitarists in rock history and learned how to play power chords at his old man's knee. But
Wolfgang also told
The Pulse Of Radio that there came a time when he discovered his own musical influences. "The first band that I actually really dug a lot was
BLINK-182, because I think
Travis Barker is an awesome drummer and I loved how the two singers harmonized — it really got me into, like, harmonizing and drums and stuff," he said. "But the big change that got me into like heavier music was probably
TOOL. I liked the weird time signatures and just how heavy it got — like,
Danny Carey is a huge drum influence of mine, and so is
Justin Chancellor on the bass."
Wolfgang learned how to play guitar and drums before switching to bass a year before
VAN HALEN's reunion tour with singer
David Lee Roth.
With
VAN HALEN inactive at the moment, Wolfgang has been touring with
TREMONTI, the solo band of
CREED and
ALTER BRIDGE guitarist
Mark Tremonti.
This marks the first time
Wolfgang has played with anyone outside of his father, his uncle
Alex and
Roth.
Tremonti has said that he hopes
Wolfgang will play bass on his next solo disc and continue touring with him.
Apart from an Australian festival in April and a trio of Japanese shows in June,
VAN HALEN has nothing on its schedule for 2013. Last summer, the band backed out of 31 North American dates, citing exhaustion, and then
Eddie Van Halen was sidelined for four-to-six months after undergoing surgery for the inflammatory intestinal affliction diverticulitis.
