During a November 16 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, the rocker revealed that he had introduced the idea of bringing Michael Anthony back into the fold for the series to his father, who eventually expanded the concept even further.
“At a certain point, it turned into what we joked as ‘The Kitchen Sink Tour’,” Wolfgang told Stern, “because after he was OK with that arrangement, he was like ‘then let’s get David [Lee Roth] and [Sammy] Hagar and even [Gary] Cherone and let’s just do a giant awesome thing.’ And we talked to [manager] Irving Azoff about how cool it would be.”
Wolfgang further explained that Azoff reached out to Anthony – consistent with the bassist’s version of the story – before he did, “and that’s kind of how everything started to get leaked out … but by that time, Dad wasn’t able to.”
As Wolfgang had been working on his solo debut during these discussions, part of the plan under consideration involved having the Van Halen prodigy open the shows with his own band and maybe join the lineup for a few songs.
The bassist confirmed that Eddie was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2017 and was told by doctors that he had six weeks left to live; the guitarist flew to Germany for radiation treatment that extended his life before things took a turn for the worse after a spring 2019 motorcycle accident that led to a brain tumor diagnosis, treatment and a number of other issues ahead of his passing last month at the age of 65.
Wolfgang has just released his first solo single, “Distance”, from the forthcoming album by his band Mammoth WVH, as a tribute to his late father.
See also:
Wolfgang Van Halen dedicates debut solo single to Eddie Van Halen
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame pays tribute to Eddie Van Halen
Van Halen vault contains unreleased material
David Lee Roth shares unreleased song as tribute to Eddie Van Halen
Search Van Halen at hennemusic
