Wolf Van Halen Opens Up on How Criticism for Replacing Michael Anthony in Van Halen Affected Him, Speaks on Strained Relationship With David Lee Roth

“Until it went public, and then it was, like, ‘Yeah, I can see why people would want to hate me.'”

Wolfgang Van Halen looked back on some of the criticism he was met with upon joining Van Halen, and said that he thought he was on good terms with David Lee Roth until the vocalist made a series of derogatory videos about him.

The 33-year-old musician has gone a long way from being the offspring of rock ‘n’ roll royalty to being a rock icon himself, and not all of it was pleasant. Eddie Van Halen’s decision to recruit Wolfgang in bassist Michael Anthony’s stead back in 2006 was met with backlash from some fans, while Wolf’s solo career, especially following his father’s untimely passing in 2020, was mired by requests to keep performing the late guitar hero’s music, and, ironically, accusations that he’s riding on his father’s coattails in equal measure.

With two Mammoth WVH albums under his belt, however, Wolfgang has become a mainstay in the contemporary rock scene in his own right, while refusing to play Van Halen regularly provided his career with a basis of rock-solid integrity.

In a new interview on the “WTF with Marc Maron Podcast”, Wolfgang said that he “tried to avoid” the negativity after joining Van Halen as a teen, “because it was only in really dedicated spaces back in the day, like message boards, stuff like that.” He added (via Guitar):

“I was just having a good time enjoying my newly sober dad, and jamming with my family and having a wonderful time. And it was just this wonderful, happy, joyous thing. Until it went public, and then it was, like, ‘Yeah, I can see why people would want to hate me.'”

Asked whether the criticism was spurred by the departure of Anthony, Wolf said:

“Yeah. [But] that’s between my dad and him. I was just there to make sure my dad stayed on the sober path that he was on. And me being there for him and keeping the train moving was my full intent.”

“I would make the setlists and everything. I started putting in B-sides that I don’t think Van Halen ever played back in the day. I just wanted to give the fans something because why can’t we just make music and have a good time doing it?”

Even so, Michael Anthony and Wolfgang Van Halen remain on good terms, with zero bad blood between them. The older musician recently noted how there was “a lot of closure” when he attended a Mammoth WVH show at The House of Blues in Las Vegas in 2023:

“We sat and talked, and there was a lot of closure for me there. Valerie [Bertinelli, Wolfgang’s mother and Eddie’s ex-wife] was there. So it was a great night. Besides the fact that Wolf is a great guy, great musician, his band kicks ass. But, yeah. So at least we were able to do that.”

Anthony similarly noted how he didn’t think that Eddie Van Halen had been “grooming” his son for the job beforehand and that he understood young Wolfgang’s eagerness to play with his father.

Wolfgang’s relationship with David Lee Roth
Elsewhere in the new interview, Wolfgang also touched upon his relationship with another Van Halen stalwart, David Lee Roth. Asked whether he gets along with the temperamental singer, he said:

“Not really! Until recently I thought we were on good terms and he made a couple of YouTube videos about me, about how much he doesn’t like me. Which was like ‘Okay, cool.'”

“He basically just said a bunch of stuff that was true to him. It doesn’t matter if it’s not true because the people that are going to listen to it will believe it and use it to hate me anyway. So you’ve just gotta move forward.”

You can check out upcoming Mammoth WVH tour dates here.