{"id":271879,"date":"2025-11-04T23:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/271879\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:41:08","slug":"wolfgang-van-halen-on-his-new-album-anxiety-attacks-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/271879\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolfgang Van Halen on His New Album, Anxiety Attacks, Weight Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s as live as it can be with one guy,\u201d Wolfgang Van Halen<\/a> says of The End, his third album <\/a>as the one-man-band Mammoth<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s the sound we were striving for.\u201d And the truth is, his latest collection of ferocious hard rock sounds pretty damn live, to the point where you easily forget it\u2019s just one guy on guitar, bass, drums, vocals, and a couple of keyboard parts.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tOn the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Van Halen digs into the stories behind his new album, (reluctantly) touches on the feud with David Lee Roth<\/a> that he addresses in his song \u201cI Really Wanna,\u201d talks about his uncle Alex Van Halen<\/a>\u2018s aborted plans for an Eddie Van Halen tribute tour, reveals his weight-loss journey, and much more. A few highlights follow; to hear the whole episode, go here<\/a> for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts<\/a> or Spotify<\/a>, or just press play above.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tA traumatic panic attack on the way to a Metallica show became the inspiration for the album\u2019s title track and overall themes. Wolfgang was preparing for what would be the highest-altitude show he\u2019d ever performed, opening for Metallica in Mexico. \u201cBeing a singer, anytime I\u2019ve been in a place that has a really high-altitude elevation, it\u2019s very tough,\u201d he explains. \u201cI was super nervous. I\u2019m really good at psyching myself out anxiety-wise, and I didn\u2019t get a lot of sleep before the flight. I already hate flying to begin with. I\u2019m just a very anxious person.\u201d Then, on the plane, the panic attack hit. \u201cMy vision started closing. I thought I had had a panic attack before. If you think you\u2019ve had a panic attack, you probably haven\u2019t. It\u2019s like your body betrays you. My vision closed up. I felt like I was gonna throw up. I started sweating profusely, but I was freezing. I\u2019d never been aware of how badly that could happen. That feeling of feeling like everything was over and ending \u2014 when I saw the album art by [collage artist] Moon Patrol, I was like, \u2018Oh my God, that\u2019s that feeling perfectly artistically represented.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWolfgang kept his father\u2019s priceless original Frankenstrat guitar in his car for three weeks during the L.A. fires. \u201cThere were multiple fires within a mile of the house, so I rented a U-Haul and filled it with as many of my dad\u2019s guitars as I could,\u201d he says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even worry about my own stuff, \u2019cause I had to worry about my dad\u2019s legacy. I had the Frankenstein in my car for about three weeks\u2026 That anxiety and stress really bled into my lyric writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pre-production process for The End was completely different from his previous albums. \u201cInstead of just doing demos on my laptop, we did them up in the studio,\u201d Wolfgang says. \u201cI\u2019d ask Jeff, our engineer, to put the click at a certain tempo and I would play guitar to it for about a minute and a half. Then I\u2019d run out and play drums, and then I\u2019d run back and play bass. You\u2019d realize if something was working pretty quickly, rather than being on your computer for three and a half hours going, \u2018Eh, the EQ on this doesn\u2019t sound good.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWolfgang says David Lee Roth (whose name he doesn\u2019t utter) started their feud without provocation in the video where he referred to Wolf as \u201cthis fucking kid.\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t put a two-hour-long YouTube rant of completely unfounded lies about said person out of nowhere,\u201d Wolfgang points out. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I did, but that\u2019s certainly where I sit.\u200a I\u2019ve always been a punching bag. It is just whatever\u2026. I\u2019m a 34-year-old married man with a third album. I\u2019m not a kid.\u201d He adds that the song represents his newfound confidence: \u201cNo matter what you do, you\u2019re gonna piss somebody off. So you might as well have a sense of humor about it and enjoy yourself and just kind of move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWolfgang has lost 60 pounds over the past year and a half. \u201cI\u2019ve just been focused more on just trying to eat healthfully and just take care of myself,\u201d he explains. \u201cMy job is a very active job. Touring is a very active job, and I\u2019ve found that if you just kind of perfect your diet \u2014 that\u2019s the stuff that people hate to hear. But in terms of getting healthier, it really starts with diet, more even than exercise. I think I\u2019m down like 60 pounds over the last year and a half, two years, just from really locking in.\u201d He\u2019s stunned at people\u2019s willingness to comment on his appearance, especially the commenters on a People magazine social-media post about his wedding: \u200a\u201dThe amount of, like, at-home mothers just lambasting me by the thousands. It\u2019s just like, what the fuck is wrong with you? It was really insane to have one of the happiest moments in my life be put up for every Karen on the planet to just share whatever they felt. It\u2019s not, you know, metal bros. It\u2019s fucking moms, just showing you how awful they are on the inside.I was like, \u2018Wow, OK, cool. You guys do that and I\u2019m gonna go over here and, you know, feel better about myself.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tWolfgang was in favor of Alex Van Halen\u2019s aborted plans<\/a> for an Eddie Van Halen tribute tour \u2014 but a \u201ccertain person\u201d wasn\u2019t willing to put ego aside. Wolfgang confirms that he was aware that, as Alex Van Halen revealed to Rolling Stone last year, Alex had been rehearsing with David Lee Roth for a potential Van Halen tour in tribute to Eddie. And if asked, he says, he would\u2019ve been happy to play on the tour. \u201cI was going to be there in whatever capacity Al needed, for whatever Al needs,\u201d Wolfgang says. \u201cHe\u2019s the proprietor when it comes to what Van Halen is and what it will be. If he needs me, I\u2019m there. I\u2019d be open to do whatever he wanted me to do.\u201d Alex said the tour didn\u2019t happen after he clashed with Roth, which Wolfgang confirms: \u201cUnfortunately, some people just can\u2019t get it working.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAlex Van Halen wants<\/a> to use AI to complete unfinished Van Halen songs, but Wolfgang isn\u2019t a fan of the technology. \u200a\u201dAl is free to do whatever he wants,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s obviously the proprietor of what Van Halen is and where it goes. But I think generative AI is fucking stupid. I don\u2019t like it. I think it\u2019s dumb. I think we should be using AI to put mufflers on cars, not paint paintings and make songs. It should be doing the stuff that we don\u2019t wanna do, so we can focus on the creative stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDownload and subscribe to\u00a0Rolling Stone\u2018s weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts<\/a> or Spotify<\/a>, or go here<\/a> for the podcast provider of your choice. Check out nine years\u2019 worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth interviews with artists including Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, Questlove, Halsey, Missy Elliott, Dua Lipa, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Brian May, Roger Taylor, Ice Cube, Taylor Hawkins, Willow, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Charlie Puth, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, and Gary Clark Jr. And look for dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone\u2018s critics and reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s as live as it can be with one guy,\u201d Wolfgang Van Halen says of The End, his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[145363,236,66148,88,145364,145365],"class_list":{"0":"post-271879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-alex-van-halen","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-david-lee-roth","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-mammoth","13":"tag-wolfgang-van-halen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}