Wolfgang Van Halen recently reflected on playing his late father, Eddie Van Halen’s, songs at the Taylor Hawkins tribute shows. He stated that it felt “like closing a book”. He also confessed that he was “losing it that day” because he feared making a mistake.
The tribute to the Foo Fighters’ late drummer consisted of a couple of concerts in September 2022. Wolfgang was invited to perform, and he played three classic Van Halen songs across the shows: “On Fire”, “Panama”, and “Hot for Teacher”.
In the past, Van Halen has stated that he felt extremely nervous about the whole affair, but as he told Andy Guitar in a June 16 interview, he felt like he had finished a chapter of his life by honoring his father.
During the interview, Wolfgang Van Halen admitted that the stakes were high for his performance and it lead to a lot of stress about how he would get through it.
He said, “Yeah, to me, it was like closing a book. It was my way of being able to not only honor Taylor, but honor my dad by playing some of his material and just kind of keep out of the mess that is the… And so it was definitely a do-or-die thing for me.”
He added, “I get anxiety normally when I’m doing nothing, but for that day, my uncle Patrick will tell you, I was very… I was losing it that day. ‘Cause to me, it was, ‘If I don’t do this right, if I don’t serve this justice, then my life will be over.'”
“I ended up playing it pretty all right. I still made mistakes, but it was just all live and in the heat of the moment.”
At the Taylor Hawkins tribute shows, Wolfgang Van Halen was supported by Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl on bass, Josh Freese on drums, and The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins on vocals.
During the interview, Wolfgang also expressed gratitude for their assistance, noting the experience was difficult and emotional:
“But it was really special. Being able to have Dave and Justin and Josh there supporting me, being able to play with three idols of mine supporting such an emotional and difficult thing for me to do was really special, and I don’t think I could’ve done it without ’em… Yeah, that was a day of catharsis, for sure.”
