“We’d have a lot of fun if you came and joined us”: Wolfgang Van Halen recalls the moment he personally invited David Lee Roth to rejoin Van Halen
After the departure of David Lee Roth in 1985, Van Halen went through two more vocalists – Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone – before he returned in 2006. Hagar performed with the rock titans between 1985 and 1996, and again from 2003 to 2005, while Cherone was in the band between 1996 and 1999.
In a recent episode of Behind The Music on Paramount+, Wolfgang Van Halen reveals how he was the one to offer an olive branch to Roth back in 2006. It came after the Mammoth WVH frontman started jamming with his father – and it started to get serious.
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“Alex [Van Halen] and Dad were always jamming no matter what. It wasn’t until I was hanging out that he was like, ‘Hey Wolf pick up a bass,’” he recalls [via People]. “It was clearly just a fun thing for the three of us. We did it for a while – to the point where it was like ‘oh shit, there’s something here!’ We were connected on a new level other than just family. We were rhythmically entwined.”
The three worked perfectly together – but Wolfgang couldn’t help but consider how they might sound with David Lee Roth involved. “I wrote out the exact wording of what I should say so I could call David Lee Roth and ask if he wanted to come over and jam,” he explains.
“I basically was like, ‘Hi. This is Wolfgang Van Halen and I’ve been jamming with my uncle and my father at 5150 and we’d have a lot of fun if you came and joined us. This ain’t no joke,’” he says. “I remember really specifically, my dad made me finish it [like that.]”
Upon sending the message, Wolfgang recalls his excitement. “It was like, ‘Oh I’m playing with my family and this is going to be really exciting. Everything’s going to be great and nothing bad is ever going to happen,’” he says. “Shows you how young I was…”
The relationship between Wolfgang and Roth has seemingly soured since 2006. While Wolfgang went on to tour with Van Halen for 14 years, it has recently come to light that Roth isn’t too keen on Eddie Van Halen’s prodigious son.
In a rather unhinged YouTube video posted in January entitled ‘This Crazy Kid..’, Roth slammed Wolfgang.
“This fucking kid,” Roth said. “He’s complaining the entire tour like I’m not paying enough attention to him on stage. Like Santa Claus coming down the chimney and popping out on Christmas with nobody paying attention. Shalom to the dome, homie. I’m giving him the best. Everything I’ve got in front of twenty, thirty thousand people at a clip, and he’s complaining to everybody around me — the business manager, the security guy, the clothing lady — ‘Dave’s not paying enough attention to me.’”
Wolfgang’s episode of Behind the Music is out now on Paramount+.
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