Wolfgang Van Halen Faces the Fire

For many, Wolfgang Van Halen will always be defined by his famous origin story. The son of guitar legend Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli, he first banged out rhythms on stacks of magazines before moving to real drums. As a teenager, he unexpectedly became the spark for Van Halen’s mid-2000s reunion with David Lee Roth—a run that brought long-awaited, sold-out tours, a 2012 studio album, and a 2015 live release. The band’s time, however, ended when Eddie passed away in October 2020 after a long battle with cancer. In the years between their final tour and his father’s death, Wolf had quietly been crafting a solo album, which he set aside to spend more time with Eddie.In time, Van Halen returned to the music he’d quietly begun before his father’s passing. In late 2020, he unveiled his debut single, “The Distance,” a heartfelt tribute to Eddie that introduced his Mammoth WVH project to the world. The album that followed was very much his own—he wrote the songs, sang, and played all the instruments. From there, he quickly established himself on his own terms. Four years later, he was riding high on the strength of two acclaimed albums, with his sophomore effort, Mammoth II, building on the promise of his lauded debut. Throughout that cycle, Wolfgang did it his way—opening for Metallica, Foo Fighters, Creed, and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, while also packing venues nationwide on his first proper U.S. headlining tour.
While things couldn’t have been going any better professionally, Van Halen slowly felt the angst of this budding success catching up to him. On a September 2024 flight to Mexico to close out his stadium run with Metallica, the multi-instrumentalist felt a strange pain suddenly take over his body. Then his vision started to blur, and he felt like he was going to vomit. He turned to his uncle, Patrick Bertinelli, one of the “trusted people” who goes on tour with him, swiped at his leg, and told him he didn’t feel well in the manner of a seven-year-old who had a tummy ache. Cold and drenched in sweat, Van Halen’s uncle put his hand on his head and said, “Yeah, you don’t feel good, man.” After what felt like hours in the airplane bathroom—but was really about 25 minutes—the sensation finally passed.
What was really going on was the culmination of nerves that ended up being all-encompassing. With Mexico City’s altitude nearing 7,000 feet, and having never set foot in the city before, Van Halen was worried about how he’d be able to sing in high elevation. It was also the final show of the Metallica jaunt, so he wanted to wrap things on a positive note. Add to that a lack of sleep before the flight, and thoughts spun around in his head until he became physically sick.
Today, sitting backstage in Rhode Island ahead of another arena-opening date for Creed, the road-weary Van Halen can’t help but chuckle at that confluence of events.
“It was my first panic attack,” Van Halen says. “I never felt my body betray itself so hard. On paper, I’m a very anxious person, but that was a whole other level.”
For Van Halen, the angst of that moment proved to be a harbinger of the stresses that surrounded the making of his new third studio album.As he got to work on what was to become The End, Van Halen faced challenges beyond his control. For the better part of the past few years, the 34-year-old, along with longtime Van Halen family confidant and guitar tech Matt Bruck, painstakingly rebuilt 5150, the Los Angeles-area studio his father constructed and where every Van Halen album since 1984 had been recorded. The renovation was completed between Mammoth albums, making the recording process this time around far smoother and streamlining pre-production considerably.
While working on pre-production following the Metallica dates, Van Halen decided to make some changes, including rechristening the project Mammoth after securing the trademark to the name. Usually, Van Halen cooked up ideas on his laptop to hear them and see how they’d come together. In the rebuilt studio, fully operational to his standards, he could play a riff, run to the drums to track it, then hop over to the bass. This efficient setup allowed Van Halen, once again teaming with frequent collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette, to work much more smoothly. And, just like prior Mammoth albums, he played every instrument himself, calling it his “purest form of artistic expression.”
“When I was making Logic demos, the process of it bogged down the creativity,” he says. “It would take too long for me to get the drums that I wanted, so that I would give up, and the creativity would be lost.”
Now, armed with 5150 set up to his standards, the album came together quickly. Drawing from several unfinished ideas he’d carried over from previous writing sessions, Van Halen put a “fresh coat of paint” on them, setting off a creative chain reaction from which most of the ideas for The End emerged. He spent the next few months recording before heading back out on the road to play arenas with Creed.“In comparison to how I was on the first album, which was very reserved, guitar-wise, I’m starting to worry less about what people think and what people say.”In January, though, problems arose. Van Halen wasn’t immune to the anxiety that the wildfires destroying parts of Los Angeles caused among the city’s residents. Their proximity to 5150 was never far from his mind, looming as a menacing presence that threatened both the Van Halen home and, in turn, his studio. This tension, set against the backdrop of working on new music, underscored the lurking horrors of Mother Nature. “That’s where most of the anxious, doomsday energy in the lyrics comes from,” he says. “I couldn’t focus on my things.”
With not just his gear, but also his father’s, sitting in 5150, Van Halen knew how important it was to keep everything safe. He recalls a three-week period when Eddie’s iconic Frankenstein guitar sat in the backseat of his car, ready to go in case he had to evacuate with little time to spare.
“I thought, I’ll have Frankenstein and my wife, and we’re good,” he says. “And then we had a U-Haul filled with whatever else we felt was worth saving, which was very tough. Luckily, it didn’t come to that, but it was a traumatizing time we’re still working through.”
That tense energy from this period—the panic attack on top of the fear of losing his father’s remaining physical possessions—is reflected throughout The End. Lyrically, Mammoth songs have always been Van Halen’s outlet for processing anxiety, even when the exuberant melodies suggest otherwise. This album was no different.
Songs like the Foo Fighters-inspired “I Really Wanna” (where he addresses standing up to the bullies he’s faced over the years … and there’s a particular pointed line that sharp-eared listeners will catch) and “One of a Kind”—two of his favorites—came together smoothly thanks to the streamlined pre-production process. In fact, he says he wouldn’t have taken a chance on the “wacky” tempo changes in “One of a Kind” without it.This didn’t mean the work was easy. Van Halen pushed himself as both a musician and vocalist, and laying down his vocals proved to be the toughest challenge yet. “I was uncomfortable a lot of the time,” he says of the process. But stepping out of his comfort zone—for example, on the bluesy “Better Off”—forced him to grow as a singer.
The End isn’t what its title implies. Instead, after finding his way on his first few albums, it’s a cohesive body of work that shows the depth and growth of Van Halen’s songwriting. Look no further than the title track, which opens with a tapped sequence reminiscent of you-know-who. (“It was fun to have that ear-catching moment,” he says.) It’s an idea Van Halen had been sitting for nearly a decade, just waiting for the perfect song where it would finally fit.
“I always thought it was a little over the top,” Van Halen says. “I thought of it as a challenge: ‘How can you make this the centerpiece of an idea, but still make a cohesive song around it?’ That was the songwriting challenge.”
It’s one that he aced. Throughout the song’s fun, in-your-face three-and-a-half minutes (listen closely, and there’s a nod to “Source of Infection” from OU812), Van Halen shreds with the confidence of a guitar wizard and the ease of a natural on what stands as The End’s leanest, meanest, most action-packed song. And speaking of action-packed, the accompanying video was directed by none other than legendary “Mariachi-style” filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.
A longtime fan of Rodriguez (Van Halen cites From Dusk to Dawn and Spy Kids as favorites), the two met at a show on the Mammoth II tour in the director’s hometown of Austin. The thought of Rodriguez directing a Mammoth video felt like a “pie-in-the-sky dream.” After playing demos of the new material for the filmmaker, Van Halen worked up the courage to ask Rodriguez if he’d be up for it, and he was intrigued. When Van Halen sent him the completed version of “The End,” Rodriguez came on board, bringing effects guru Greg Nicotero along with him.“I never felt my body betray itself so hard. On paper, I’m a very anxious person, but that was a whole other level.”“The amount of talent being utilized for such a silly thing just blew my mind,” Van Halen says of the zombie-themed video, which includes cameos from actor Danny Trejo, Slash, Myles Kennedy, and Valerie Bertinelli. “It was so fun … it was happy, with smiles throughout the whole shoot.”
At its core, The End is a balanced, guitar-driven album. Although Van Halen still considers himself a drummer—the first instrument he ever played—his guitar work has matured, and he sounds more confident than ever. There are flashes of virtuosity, as on the title track, but overall, he focuses on what best serves each composition.
“In comparison to how I was on the first album, which was very reserved, guitar-wise, I’m starting to worry less about what people think and what people say,” Van Halen explains. While The End, he says, “may be a bit reserved compared to Mammoth II, it feels more balanced this time around. It has a rawer vibe, and I was happy to keep the rough edges for people to feel like they’re in the studio with me.”“There are a lot of expectations around me—so many preconceived ideas that it feels impossible for anyone to have a neutral opinion.”With The End, Van Halen takes a reflective look inside. After years of having millions of fans watch him since he was barely able to drive, he’s finally comfortable with his place in music. So much so that it’s allowed him the vision to start looking further down the road. While recording The End was fruitful, four remaining song ideas weren’t fleshed out. Those could serve as the foundation to a fourth album, one that Van Halen notes that even without writing new material, he’d have plenty in the bank to draw from. By merging the old and new, he can turn a simple idea into something that feels more alive—a mantra he carries into every Mammoth session.“There are a lot of expectations around me—so many preconceived ideas that it feels impossible for anyone to have a neutral opinion,” he says. “From the beginning, I’ve tried to stand out as my own person, without all of the bullshit that comes with the name and the controversies and everything that's come before me. It's just nice to be able to be judged for the music itself, rather than what people think or say about me.”When reminded that some of his peers—musicians he admired as a young player—are now among rock’s biggest names, Van Halen quickly retorts that most people still see him as a kid. Some, he jokes, will never see him as anything more than that.“That’s the tough thing!” he says with a laugh. “I feel like I'm gonna be a kid until I’m an old man. I’m never going to be just a guy. Like, I just want to be a guy.”Wolfgang Van Halen’s GearGuitars and BassesEVH SA-126 goldtop (SA-126 Tim Shaw pickups)EVH SA-126 Pink finish (SA-126 Tim Shaw pickups)Prototype Wolfgang 4-stringAmpEVH 5150III 50 Watt (6L6) (“NOEL”) w/ EVH 5150III 4x12 cabinet
EffectsDunlop MXR EVH Phase 90Dunlop MXR EVH FlangerDunlop Cry Baby EVH wahDunlop MXR Micro FlangerDunlop MXR Micro ChorusDunlop MXR Sub MachineDunlop MXR Uni-VibeDunlop MXR Uni-VibeZVEX Woolly Mammoth VexterElectro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer (vintage)Electro-Harmonix Small CloneEarthQuaker Devices Hoof ReaperCeriatone CenturaDigiTech DOD Envelope Filter 440 Boss RE-202 Space EchoBoss OC-3 Super OctaveBoss RV-6 ReverbBoss CE-5 Chorus EnsembleGuild Brian May boost
Strings, Picks, and AccessoriesDunlop Max-Grip.60mmEVH.010–.049EVH cables