WOLFGANG VAN HALEN explains why he dropped his initials from MAMMOTH WVH band name
14-05-2025
During a May 11 question-and-answer session at WDHA‘s “Mammoth For Ya’ Mama!” event at Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, New Jersey, Wolfgang Van Halen — son of legendary VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen — spoke about his decision to drop the “WVH” initials from his MAMMOTH WVH band name prior to the release of the group’s latest single, “The End”. MAMMOTH, as Wolfgang‘s band is now known, is a nod to family history — Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen‘s band was called MAMMOTH when singer David Lee Roth first joined it in 1974.
Wolfgang said: “It’s what we wanted the whole time. It was supposed to be a direct reference to my Dad’s, the first band where he was the singer, ’cause I’m playing guitar and I’m singing.”
Referencing the fact that he asked his father for permission to use the MAMMOTH band name for his solo project, Wolfgang, who became VAN HALEN‘s bassist in 2006 at the age of 15, continued: “I was nervous. I have early demos for the song ‘Mammoth’. It was called ‘Mammoth I’, ’cause it was the first idea I ever wrote that was, like, ‘It’s gonna be for my band MAMMOTH.’ I think it was in, like, 2013 that I wrote the idea. And I didn’t ask Dad until, like, 2016. I think we were on that last (VAN HALEN) tour. And I was like, ‘Hey, Pop, is that cool if I call my band MAMMOTH?’ And he was, like, ‘Fuck, yeah.’ And I don’t know why I was so nervous to ask him, because, God, he was the most supportive person other than my mom in my life.”
Circling back to why his band is now called just MAMMOTH, Wolfgang said: “Man, is it a fucking tight rope to walk, with the shadow I’m under and the expectations. And it’s, like, I wanna be able to have the opportunity to reference my lineage, but not copy it and just put a flag in it and sit there and play ‘Panama’ for everybody every night. I wanna be able to be my own person.”
Wolfgang also talked about what fans can expect from MAMMOTH‘s upcoming third album, which is expected later in the year. He said: ”I don’t wanna overrepresent what I’ve been working on by putting… I just thought ‘The End’ was a really cool, exciting thing. But I think what I recognized during this past recording for what may or may not be coming soon, was I was uncomfortable, and I thought that was a cool thing because I was starting to tread ground that I don’t think I would normally just be doing the same old thing. I was enjoying the uncomfortability of going, like, ‘Is this what I would do? Or is this something new or something more mature?'”
He added: “I think there’s definitely the core MAMMOTH vibes that you’ve come to expect because that’s the tough thing when I record an album now. I have people who are going, ‘I want MAMMOTH,’ and I can’t just bring you guys something different. So I think you guys will be happy with what (you hear on the upcoming album).”
MAMMOTH‘s setlist for WDHA‘s “Mammoth For Ya’ Mama!” event was as follows:
01. Another Celebration At The End Of The World
02. You’re To Blame
03. Epiphany
04. Distance
05. Take A Bow
06. Don’t Back Down
07. Q&A Session
08. The End
MAMMOTH played a six-song acoustic set on May 6 at the J. Rieger & Co. distillery in Kansas City, Missouri.
Featured songs:
01. Another Celebration At The End Of The World
02. Epiphany
03. Think It Over
04. Distance
05. The End
06. Don’t Back Down
Fan-filmed video of the entire performance can be seen below. (After each song, the YouTube player automatically jumps to the next song in the playlist.)
Earlier in the month, MAMMOTH released a new single,
“The End”. Wolfgang teamed up with legendary director Robert Rodriguez to do a modern-day interpretation of Rodriguez‘s 1996 hit film “From Dusk Till Dawn”. The video tells the story of a rock band that is booked to play a show at a dive bar and given an ominous warning from the club owner portrayed by Danny Trejo.
Watch “The End” below.
Wolfgang Van Halen was a guest on Billy Corgan‘s new podcast, “The Magnificent Others” earlier this year. Corgan and Van Halen sit down for a candid and far-reaching conversation about music, identity, and forging a creative path in the long shadow of one of rock’s greatest legends. Wolfgang opens up about his drive to earn every opportunity on his own merits, reflecting on the dual realities of carrying a famous name and longing simply to be recognized as a credible musician. He talks about his musical foundation — from pounding out BLINK-182 drum fills to honing a powerful and versatile lead vocal style — and how those early passions shaped the sound of MAMMOTH WVH. He dives into the band’s whirlwind experiences supporting METALLICA, the importance of maintaining a rock-solid live show without backing tracks, and the reality of navigating public scrutiny in the hyperconnected era of social media. Along the way, Wolfgang shares personal memories of his father, explaining both the encouragement and quiet expectations that fueled his ambition and helped him endure the commentary and comparisons that inevitably follow him and much more.
Regarding MAMMOTH WVH‘s live performances, Wolfgang said: “A big criticism that I was given, because nobody ever believed I was playing anything, was that I was faking and I was playing to tracks or something… It’s very important for me that we don’t use tracks. The only thing we play to is a click track.”
Asked why he and the rest of MAMMOTH WVH play to a click track, Wolfgang said: “It just kind of keeps it together. It’s just more fun. Sometimes it’s fun to not… There’s a metal band, MESHUGGAH, I love very much, and sometimes they just go into a song where you don’t even hear a count-off, and I think that’s really cool. But I don’t know — it just kind of holds it together.”
Circling back to the use of backing tracks at rock concerts, Wolfgang said: “That’s a big debate on tracks. I personally think there shouldn’t be any lead vocal tracks, there shouldn’t be any background tracks, there shouldn’t be any main guitar, no drums. For us, what you’re seeing is us, and it’s different — it’s not the album. It’s a live thing. And I think what we’ve been doing the past three years is working on being the best performance kind of band that you can see. We don’t have a show. The show is us. You come to see us play our songs as well as possible.”
In November 2020, one month after his father’s passing, Wolfgang announced the launch of his own band called MAMMOTH WVH.
“Mammoth II”, the second album from MAMMOTH WVH, was released in August 2023 via BMG. The 10-track LP was recorded at the legendary 5150 studio and was produced by Wolfgang‘s friend and collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette.
Wolfgang, who played all the instruments on MAMMOTH WVH‘s first two albums, told the 102.9 The Hog radio station that he picked up guitar when he was just 12 years old, “because I wanted to learn how to play ‘316’, the song my father wrote for me, at a talent show at my school. I think it was sixth grade.”
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