Wolfgang Van Halen on the red carpet at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., April 3, 2022. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona
Wolfgang Van Halen has addressed the emotional impact that playing three Van Halen songs at last year’s Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts had on him.
In a new interview with Britain’s Rock Sound, Van Halen reveals that playing his late dad’s “On Fire”, “Hot For Teacher” and “Panama” at the September shows in London and L.A., accompanied by Dave Grohl, Josh Freese and singer Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, made him “nervous as hell.”
He added that “taking away any emotional weight to it all, just performing with three musicians who I’ve loved my entire life and looked up to was crazy enough, but then you add the emotional weight of it all for Taylor –probably one of the only few times I’d ever really play any songs like that for Pop and for Taylor — yeah, just an insane thing that I’ll never forget.”
Wolf’s band Mammoth WVH played the Download Festival in Derby, England on Thursday.