Wolfgang Van Halen destroys “grape” on Twitter who questions his name

22 March, 2023

Wolfgang Van Halen

Wolfgang Van Halen has hit back at detractors on Twitter, one of whom accused him of “taking advantage” of his name.

The singer and multi-instrumentalist – who is the son of the late Van Halen guitarist Eddie – has faced criticism for using the Van Halen name from fans of the classic rock band. He has also been accused of supposedly failing to honour his father by not playing Van Halen songs live.

Yesterday (March 21), a Twitter user came after Van Halen, saying: “If a person wants to make a name for themselves they wouldn’t take advantage of their famous father’s last name & band name. His father & uncle didn’t have that. Everyone in the band didn’t have that. Matter of fact, majority of current & former bands & singers didn’t have that.”

Van Halen responded by saying, “Van Halen is literally my fucking name you grape.”

In a further tweet, Van Halen added: “You guys understand Van Halen is literally a name. Like way before it was a band. Right? That good ol’ American rock and roll you love so much was written by a Dutch immigrant named Edward Lodewik Van Halen, not some dude changing his name to sound cool and ‘rock n roll’ and shit?”

Van Halen then decided to make light of the situation by sharing a poll to Twitter asking his followers to help him choose a new name – either ‘Wolfgang Led Zeppelin’, ‘Wolfgang AC/DC’, ‘Wolfgang The Who’ or ‘Wolfgang Paul McCartney’.

“I really wanted to write ‘Wolfgang Paul McCartney & Wings’ but there was a character limit,” he added.

Elsewhere, Wolfgang Van Halen has today (March 22) announced a second album under Mammoth WVH, ‘Mammoth II’, which will be out on August 4. He also shared its lead single, ‘Another Celebration At The End Of The World’.

“I knew that I wanted the new album to contain elements of what people heard on the debut, but also giving me a chance to branch out a bit,” he said in a press release.

“‘Another Celebration At The End Of the World’ is definitely a song that showcases what people can expect from the new album,” Van Halen said in a press release. “It is a high-energy rocker with some fun guitar moments on it. I also pushed myself vocally and it is a song I can’t wait to get out and play live. I can see it being a fixture in our live set moving forward.”

The track list for ‘Mammoth II’ is as follows:

1. ‘Right?’
2. ‘Like A Pastime’
3. ‘Another Celebration At The End Of The World’
4. ‘Miles Above Me’
5. ‘Take A Bow’
6. ”Optimist’
7. ‘I’m Alright’ 
8. ‘Erase Me’
9. ‘Waiting’
10. ‘Better Than You’       

 

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