WOLFGANG VAN HALEN: 'I Think My Dad Is An Incredibly Underrated Rhythm Guitar Player And Songwriter'

During a recent appearance on The Cody Tucker Show, former VAN HALEN bassist and current MAMMOTH frontman Wolfgang Van Halen, who shared the stage with his father, legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen, together from 2006 until 2015, five years before Eddie's death, was asked to name musicians who are, in his opinion, some of the most underrated guitarists in the rock and metal world. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'll throw you a different angle at something that I think is really obvious. I think my dad is an incredibly underrated rhythm guitar player and songwriter. I think everybody looks at him as Mr. Tap and he's Mr. Shred, but I think that's just like a flavor to what he did. And I think it's the fact that he was such a good songwriter and rhythm guitar player which allowed him to be the shredder guy on top of it. 'Cause there are plenty of people who are just great shredders and they're just running through scales and stuff, and that's not as interesting."

Wolfgang continued: "But I think in terms of guitar players that are maybe underrated, I'd say one of my favorite underrated guitar players would have to be Malcolm Young from AC/DC. Obviously, Angus [Young, AC/DC's lead guitarist] is very in your face and dancing around while he was just in the back, but I think [Malcolm] is the greatest rhythm guitar player in history. He just had such a grit, and he's absolutely one of my favorites."

Wolfgang also talked about what it has been like to be embraced for his own music, having released the third MAMMOTH album, "The End", on October 24 via BMG. He said: "It's very fun. And to be able to carve my own sort of niche out, kind of outside of the family name and to be able to try and represent myself as my own person instead of… I think there's a lot of people out there who just kind of see me as a bag of my dad's blood, and that's a testament to how inspirational and incredible my father was. I'll always accept that as a positive thing, but at the end of the day, I would love to be treated as my own person with my own personality and my own interests and my own artistic merit. And I don't know — I think this time around, I'm really starting to see it with this record that people are really actually seeing me for my own person. And it's very cool to have the support, to be able to play these shows and that people are actually showing up and you see people singing songs off the new record that's only been out for two weeks. It's, like, that's really cool, man. It feels really great."

Wolfgang continued: "I think that's maybe a big reason why I still play [all the instruments on the MAMMOTH recordings]. I feel like I need to be doing something different than my dad. If I was just sitting there playing guitar and stuff, I would feel like there's more comparisons there, but I think that I'm doing something completely different than my dad did is part of like a point of pride, I guess. 'Cause I could easily just shack up and be, like, 'Hey, I'm the only place where you can hear 'Panama' being played by Van Halen.' But I would never wanna do that.

"My dad had a really good quote back in the day when [VAN HALEN] were doing a lot of covers on the album 'Diver Down', and he didn't like that," Wolfgang added. "And he said, 'I would rather fail on my own than succeed with somebody else's material.' And that's exactly how I feel about playing VAN HALEN stuff. It's, like, I can do it, and I have done it on the special occasion, like for the Taylor Hawkins [tribute concerts], and stuff like that. But overall, it's just, like I would rather fail doing MAMMOTH stuff than succeed playing 'Panama' every night. It's not in the cards for me."

To celebrate the release of "The End", MAMMOTH kicked off a fall headline run two months ago. "The End" tour launched on October 31 and ran for five weeks before it wrapped up on December 7. Longtime friend Myles Kennedy was the special guest on the run.

MAMMOTH's touring lineup features Wolfgang on guitar and lead vocals, Frank Sidoris (SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS) on guitar, Jon Jourdan on guitar and vocals, Garrett Whitlock (TREMONTI) on drums, and Ronnie Ficarro on bass.

Back in 2021, MAMMOTH's first offering, "Mammoth WVH", took flight, bowing at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and capturing No. 1 on three Billboard charts — Top Hard Rock Albums, Top Independent Albums, and Top Rock Albums. "Distance" soared as the first of two No. 1 rock radio hits and earned a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Rock Song". Two years later, "Mammoth II" only saw Wolfgang pick up the pace. It debuted in the Top 5 of the Billboard Top Album Sales chart in addition to bringing him back to No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart. Inciting widespread applause from Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Grammy.com, Kerrang! and more, Classic Rock hailed it as "a solo second that betters his debut in every department," and American Songwriter applauded, "'II' reveals a closer representation of what MAMMOTH is now and Van Halen's dynamism as a musician and as a writer." The band canvased the globe with METALLICA, supported FOO FIGHTERS in North America, supported CREED on their record-breaking tour as well as filling houses on their own. They performed on NBC's "Today", ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and at the 2024 MusiCares "Person Of The Year" benefit gala in honor of Jon Bon Jovi. Not to mention, Wolfgang shared the stage with Ryan Gosling, Mark Ronson and Slash at the 2024 Academy Awards performing "I'm Just Ken" from the blockbuster "Barbie" movie. He also joined Maynard James Keenan (TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE),Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),Robert Trujillo (METALLICA) and producer Andrew Watt for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction of Ozzy Osbourne that same year.