WOLFGANG VAN HALEN: 'When People Say Rock Is Dead, I Think That's Really Stupid'

In a recent interview with JZ of "The Dark", an active rock music program that airs nightly on Little Falls, Minnesota's 94 Rocks KFML radio station, MAMMOTH frontman Wolfgang Van Halen was asked for his opinion on "the current state of rock radio". He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't know, really. I think there's good in everything. I think when people say rock is dead, I think that's really stupid. I think that there's just a wider pool of music. I think we're kind of past the point of… It's very difficult to innovate or do anything new because it's all been done before. So I think if you just lock in on what makes you feel good and what sounds good to you, I think that's all you need. That's what I really tried to do with this record, is I tried not to overcomplicate, and if anything, I tried to simplify in certain aspects. And I found that that was a really, really cool path to take in just kind of distilling and finding what really makes you feel good. There's some songs on the new [MAMMOTH] record ['The End'] like, like 'Happy' or 'Better Off', where I was just kind of, like, 'Let's try and [see] how straightforward can I make this and just kind of focus on the melody' and stuff like that. So, I don't know. I think it's important to have an open mind, 'cause I think people can be a little too gatekeepy, and that's what stops them from finding things that they'd probably like if they had more of an open mind."

The "rock is dead" argument has popped up again and again throughout the years, including in 2018 after MAROON 5 lead singer Adam Levine told Variety magazine that "rock music is nowhere, really. I don't know where it is," he said. "If it's around, no one's invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It's better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that's why people love it."

More than a decade ago, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons told Esquire magazine that "rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won't because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it."

A number of hard rock and heavy metal musicians have weighed in on the topic in a variety of interviews over the last several years, with some digging a little deeper into Simmons's full remarks and others just glossing over the headline.

To celebrate the release of MAMMOTH's third album, "The End", the band 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.