Van Halen bassist Wolfgang Van Halen argued with fans on Twitter and Instagram over the weekend as he celebrated his birthday. The argument was about the inspiration behind the song “316.” Eddie Van Halen was inspired by Wolfgang when writing the song.
Wolfgang shared Instagram text messages with fans. One fan said, “You could be a bit nicer to the fans bro.”
Wolfgang responded, “Being a ‘fan’ isn’t a free pass for being an asshole, my dude.”
He captioned that screenshot with, “I’m SO sorry you guys…apparently I’M the asshole.”
Another fan text messaged Wolfgang on Instagram, “You need to chill bro. An entire generation of people grew up worshipping your father. He was part of their childhood and teenage years. He has fans and they think they know everything about him. Deal with it. Lol.”
Wolfgang responded, “I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say he was part of my childhood too. Maybe just a little bit more. lol.”
A fan named Eric tweeted, “Yes, definitely time flies. I remember reading interviews and Eddie was just elated with his newborn son. I love the instrumental he wrote for him, 316.”
A fan named Jason said, “Actually he wrote 316 in 1986 or before. You can hear him play it as part of his guitar solo live on LIVE WITHOUT A NET video release that was for the 5150 tour of ‘86.
Then of course released it as a actual instrumental song for the F.U.C.K album. So was it really written for him.”
Wolfgang Van Halen shot back, “Hahaha who gives a shit? Going out of your way to tell me that the song my father dedicated to me, isn’t for me, just because it was an idea he had played before I was born, doesn’t make it any less dedicated to me.
Y’all don’t get to decide that. You people blow my mind.”
