MAMMOTH WVH frontman Wolfgang Van Halen reveals David Lee Roth is the reason VAN HALEN’s last studio album is nowhere to be found on streaming services
In a recent interview on the October 27th episode of SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” Wolfgang Van Halen, who joined VAN HALEN as their bassist in 2006 at the young age of 15, was questioned about the absence of 2012’s “A Different Kind Of Truth,” the only VAN HALEN studio album he contributed to, from all major streaming music platforms.
He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yes. The contract ran out on putting it up on streaming services. So we’ve been working on getting it back, but there are some people involved who do not like that record and are not making it easy to get it back up.” Asked if these “people” that are preventing it from going back on the streaming services “were involved in the record,” Wolfgang replied: “Yeah.”
When host Eddie Trunk asked, “Might that person commonly be known by three initials?”, apparently referring to VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth, Wolfgang hesitated for a second before replying: “Probably. I mean, yeah, you can put it together. I hate to say it, because people will think I’m making stuff up, but it’s, like, man, I’d love to have the record back up there, but he doesn’t like it and he’s not working with us to get it back up there. So I hope people who like it have a physical version of it. [Laughs]”
Wolfgang, who now leads his own band MAMMOTH WVH, was the asked whether he maintains a connection with David Lee Roth and whether he possesses insights into the challenges associated with getting the singer’s approval for any VAN HALEN-related ventures. Wolfgang replied: “No, I don’t. I think that’s why I’m having such a wonderful time with MAMMOTH. I think throughout my time in VAN HALEN, you learn things that you wanna do and you wanna apply, and then you also learn things that you don’t wanna apply.
“And I think that’s why I’ve been so excited to do MAMMOTH and to have something from its inception be something pure where you can talk about things and there’s not really any big challenges other than weathering the storm together instead of the storm being dealing with each other. You know what I’m saying?”
With Wolfgang handling the bass duties, VAN HALEN embarked on extensive tours in 2007, 2012, and 2015. The band’s ultimate series of performances occurred during the summer and autumn of 2015.
Eddie sadly left us in October 2020, at the age of 65. He had been in a brave fight against throat cancer and passed away while being with loved ones in a Santa Monica, California hospital.
