Rolling Stone - Wolf & Ed

[Nitro Express]

Wolfgang’s public relations skills have much to be desired. He trolls the fan base on Twitter and that’s a stupid thing to do. I get losing his dad was a tragedy but the guy doesn’t seem that happy actually. He did mention he was diagnosed with clinical anxiety and he said he sleeps a lot. He obviously eats a lot. For me his music does nothing for me. He did a good job playing bass and singing background vocals in Van Halen.

I liked classic Van Halen. The band’s constant drama got old. I did not care for post 1984 Van Halen. It really became a lame cheese show with Sammy and a retarded soap opera once the love fest started to show strains in the relationship.

[Nitro Express]

If one of Alex’s kids could sing there would be no non-Van Halen’s allowed in that band but with Ed gone, it’s over. We will see how long Wolfie’s musical career lasts.

[Nitro Express]

I kinda got that same feeling during the 2006-2015 period...that the Van Halens had by then basically resigned themselves to giving the people what they wanted, which was Dave back onstage with the band. After Cherone and after the reunion tour with Hagar, there really was nobody else left the band COULD go with if they wanted to tour and perform in front of sizable crowds. Hand in hand with giving the people what they wanted was playing setlists of virtually nothing but CVH material. The band ended up being what Eddie and Alex had infamously resisted in 1996, which was a nostalgia band.

I never thought the 2019 'Kitchen Sink' tour would happen because Dave basically approached the band with the notion that the time he spent in it was the only time that mattered. In that spirit, he wasn't going to share vocal duties with Hagar or Cherone.

Valerie said Ed was pretty much retired from the road. He was done with touring. Wolfgang said due to his Dad’s substance abuse an intervention was done and it was decided Ed needed to start performing again and he would only go out if Wolfgang was in the band. I get the impression Ed had nobody solid in his life until Jani came into it. She seems like a very positive and disciplined person. Valerie is flaky. Wolfgang has issues. Ed and Alex get into fist fights with each other even as adults. I think the reality is, Ed never had an adult in his life until he and Jani had a relationship. Whatever went on there it was good for Ed and we saw the man come back. I liked the happy guy with the short grey hair and dog. He even started to play guitar great again. Hey. Ed Van Halen went out on top. Sad to see him go but it would be even sadder if he died a broken down wreck. Ed went out swinging.

[Nitro Express]

Wolf is also a mommy's boy.

Probably believes everything Val says.

He can be a real brat to her. She was cooking onion rings and Wolf was being a cocky jerk to her. My mom would have clocked me. Val wasn’t liking it but Wolf is too precious to discipline plus he’s like 30 and acts like a kid still.

[Nitro Express]

The Wolfgang interview I just skimmed to get through to the Van Halen stuff. I heard the Mammoth tracks that were posted here a few times a piece, just to give the stuff a fair listen. If any of it had grabbed me, I'd say so. I didn't listen to the stuff with any preconceptions. Personally, I listen to what I want and like what I want. Shit, I even like some of Rhianna's stuff. None of that Mammoth stuff gave me much of anything by way of reaction. Wasn't the worst stuff I'd ever heard, but not exceptional in any way. Probably won't even bother listening to any Mammoth stuff going forward unless it is posted here. Just doesn't do anything for me. To read Wolfgang saying that it was amazing those three tours and the one studio and one live album with Roth happened at all sort of mirrored my own take on that 2006-2015 period, where after sort of lamenting by 2015 that so little had transpired after the Mach 4 lineup having been together for nearly a decade, I thought my own take on it was wrong. That it was more amazing ANYTHING had happened AT ALL given the passage of time and personalities involved.

The second article re: Superfan was of far more interest. I think, if memory serves, that right around the point where Ed gave some interviews in...2015 (I think) really negating Mike Anthony's contributions to the band (and Sammy Hagar put out a brief clip that I saw on youtube sticking up for Mike Anthony), Ed also gave a print interview in which he stated that Dave didn't want to be friendly with him and he and Dave really had nothing in common musically because Dave mostly liked dance music. Those comments were echoed in that longtime email exchange between Eddie and the Superfan. What was surprising in the email exchange was to read Eddie totally admitting that Roth's voice by 2015 was shot along with Ed saying by the time 2015 rolled around that Dave had virtually no interaction with any of the Van Halens offstage to speak of. Seemingly, it was just a business relationship by that last tour. Even realizing these guys had hardly been lifelong buddy buddies by the time the last tour took place, the type of relationship Roth had with the Van Halens just seemed hollow and sad. Whatever. Guess that's the way it was.

Eddie Van Halen was cool. He just had the magic. Wolfgang is lame as fuck. Yeah he has some musical aptitude but he has no charisma. He’s like a wet rag and about as exciting as a insurance seminar.

[Nitro Express]

David Lee Roth is like Satan. He gets blamed for everything.

[Nitro Express]

Dave once joked that Van Halen was like your favorite Chinese restaurant. Just enjoy it and you don’t want to go back in the kitchen because you don’t want to see what’s really going on behind the scenes.

[Terry]

Valerie said Ed was pretty much retired from the road. He was done with touring. Wolfgang said due to his Dad’s substance abuse an intervention was done and it was decided Ed needed to start performing again and he would only go out if Wolfgang was in the band. I get the impression Ed had nobody solid in his life until Jani came into it. She seems like a very positive and disciplined person. Valerie is flaky. Wolfgang has issues. Ed and Alex get into fist fights with each other even as adults. I think the reality is, Ed never had an adult in his life until he and Jani had a relationship. Whatever went on there it was good for Ed and we saw the man come back. I liked the happy guy with the short grey hair and dog. He even started to play guitar great again. Hey. Ed Van Halen went out on top. Sad to see him go but it would be even sadder if he died a broken down wreck. Ed went out swinging.

It might come across as lame to say this or whatever, but Van Halen were the shit for me back in the day. Hearing Van Halen wasn't the sole reason I took up the guitar, but for the first few years of playing Eddie was a primary influence. This is back in 1981 or so. I was 11 or 12 years old, thereabouts. And, yeah, part of me had a snarky attitude toward Eddie after the 1996 fling with Dave didn't culminate in anything beyond the two BOV1 tracks. Mostly because it seemed like Ed was frittering away his talent. Van Halen were such a positive experience to listen to back in the day. Back when I was young and impressionable and still idolized rock stars. So, a lot of the snark I had toward what Ed had had devolved to in the post-Cherone/pre-2007 Roth reunion period was masking a disappointment on my part.

I didn't want Ed to basically give up, hide his talent away and retreat into seclusion. None of that represented the best of what Eddie was to me back in the day. I didn't want Eddie to embark on a half-hearted reunion tour with Sammy Hagar and hear clips of him fumble fingering his way through Van Hagar tunes. I didn't want to see Ed wanking on his Trans-Trem Sustainer for a porn movie. I didn't want to see Eddie walking around looking like an extra in a zombie movie. I didn't want to see him befuddled at a NAMM show, unable to play licks he had been able to execute with ease less than a decade earlier. Fuck, whatever I felt about the Cherone years, at least Eddie was still able to PLAY, you know? It seemed like Eddie was in free fall. Even when that publicity photo of Ed, Al, Dave and Wolfie was released online in late 2006/early 2007, Eddie still looked a bit fucked up in that photo. As much as I in 2007 was still tantalized by the prospect of Dave rejoining the group as I had been in 1996, I didn't want THAT to happen if Eddie was still in free fall.

It certainly appeared that those last three Roth tours at the very least gave Eddie a reason to get himself straight, dust off the cobwebs and give us all a glimmer of what made his playing so memorable in the first place. It'd be logical to assume that Jani and Wolfgang were positive relationships. Ed liked playing with his kid. If that's what it took to get Ed out of his tailspin, then that's what it took. Considering where Ed was in the first half of the 2000's, he did manage to sort himself out and end his professional career on a positive note and not go out, as you say, a broken-down wreck.

[Terry]

Eddie Van Halen was cool. He just had the magic. Wolfgang is lame as fuck. Yeah he has some musical aptitude but he has no charisma. He’s like a wet rag and about as exciting as a insurance seminar.

I've never felt Wolfgang was particularly noteworthy as a musician. He was a competent bass player. His playing on ADKOT was competent. His Mammoth album was competent. Wolfgang was probably one of the few people Ed would listen to when 2006 rolled around re: getting Dave back in the fold. As a fan, if one wanted to see Dave back onstage with Ed and Al again, by the time 2006 rolled around Wolfgang was the necessary part of the package that brought Eddie around re: acquiescing (finally, and partway) to what the fans had wanted. That being a CVH reunion. Van Halen Mach 4 was as close as we were gonna get. Wolfgang looked out of place on that first reunion tour, a little less so with the subsequent tours, mostly due to my gradually accepting the fact that Ed probably wouldn't have bothered touring at all had Wolfgang not been part of the band.

I don't know the kid, but he seemingly doesn't come across as any more entitled than any other kid who grew up rich, famous or not. Have zero interest in seeing him live or hearing what he's doing musically now, because what I've seen and heard of Mammoth - and that's setting to the side comparisons to Van Halen - comes across as average and forgettable to me.

[Vinnie Velvet]

I read the 'superfan' thing when it first came out and i think it was probably truthful but it was Ed's truth, what he thought or what he chose to think. The fact the guy was a Hagar fan immediately tempered it and that's probably why it wasn't even posted here.

Just because it's what Ed thought that doesn't make it completely accurate. Ed just wasn't that sophisticated a guy and spent most of his life at least a little drunk. The account shows that he still never got the fact that if your singer is taking his influences from elsewhere then when you mimic an ACDC riff and he writes a different melody over it than they would that's what makes you different and special. Also even if Roth hated hard rock it didn't stop him from spending pretty much all of the rest of his career creating it.

He also conveniently misses out that Roth carried his drunken ass and miming child son through the first reunion tour.

100 percent on all of this, yes.

[Vinnie Velvet]

He can be a real brat to her. She was cooking onion rings and Wolf was being a cocky jerk to her. My mom would have clocked me. Val wasn’t liking it but Wolf is too precious to discipline plus he’s like 30 and acts like a kid still.

Holy shit, my mom - god rest her soul - would hand me my ass if I acted like that.

[Vinnie Velvet]

It might come across as lame to say this or whatever, but Van Halen were the shit for me back in the day. Hearing Van Halen wasn't the sole reason I took up the guitar, but for the first few years of playing Eddie was a primary influence. This is back in 1981 or so. I was 11 or 12 years old, thereabouts. And, yeah, part of me had a snarky attitude toward Eddie after the 1996 fling with Dave didn't culminate in anything beyond the two BOV1 tracks. Mostly because it seemed like Ed was frittering away his talent. Van Halen were such a positive experience to listen to back in the day. Back when I was young and impressionable and still idolized rock stars. So, a lot of the snark I had toward what Ed had had devolved to in the post-Cherone/pre-2007 Roth reunion period was masking a disappointment on my part.

I didn't want Ed to basically give up, hide his talent away and retreat into seclusion. None of that represented the best of what Eddie was to me back in the day. I didn't want Eddie to embark on a half-hearted reunion tour with Sammy Hagar and hear clips of him fumble fingering his way through Van Hagar tunes. I didn't want to see Ed wanking on his Trans-Trem Sustainer for a porn movie. I didn't want to see Eddie walking around looking like an extra in a zombie movie. I didn't want to see him befuddled at a NAMM show, unable to play licks he had been able to execute with ease less than a decade earlier. Fuck, whatever I felt about the Cherone years, at least Eddie was still able to PLAY, you know? It seemed like Eddie was in free fall. Even when that publicity photo of Ed, Al, Dave and Wolfie was released online in late 2006/early 2007, Eddie still looked a bit fucked up in that photo. As much as I in 2007 was still tantalized by the prospect of Dave rejoining the group as I had been in 1996, I didn't want THAT to happen if Eddie was still in free fall.

It certainly appeared that those last three Roth tours at the very least gave Eddie a reason to get himself straight, dust off the cobwebs and give us all a glimmer of what made his playing so memorable in the first place. It'd be logical to assume that Jani and Wolfgang were positive relationships. Ed liked playing with his kid. If that's what it took to get Ed out of his tailspin, then that's what it took. Considering where Ed was in the first half of the 2000's, he did manage to sort himself out and end his professional career on a positive note and not go out, as you say, a broken-down wreck.

Agreed on all points.

Based on what was happening at the time, we all thought Eddie would be dead by 2006. Just judging by his downward spiral from about 2003 onward.

Jani helped him stay alive not to mention Wolf as well. And of course getting the band going again with Dave. All those elements brought Ed back to life basically.

Three successful tours, one more album and the live album as well. That I agree with Wolf were miracles. Not because of any perceived friction with Dave but mostly due to Ed's health.

[Nitro Express]

Holy shit, my mom - god rest her soul - would hand me my ass if I acted like that.

My mom was old school. Honor thy mother and father or else! There was a power pyramid. The parents, the kids and the dog. We were more important than the dog but we were not equal to the parents and dad was busy and gone a lot and mom was queen of the castle. Screw with the Queen and there were consequences and mom grew up around horse racing and she was tough and didn’t take shit. She wore the pants and the feminists had nothing on her.

[Nitro Express]

Funny. I had lunch with two of my high school chums and one said you know why we turned out fine and didn’t get into too much trouble? We were scared of our moms. Ha! Ha! That’s a true statement. Shit. I was scared of my mom even when she was the old lady walking with the cane. She would hit you with the thing and shove it up your ass.

[Nitro Express]

Anyways Van Halen was what it was. They had their issues. I think they might have done things different if people stopped going to the shows and didn’t buy the music but that never happened. In a way the fans enabled the band’s behavior by continuing to support them. They always knew the seats would be full so why change?