In the months that have passed since Eddie Van Halen's death, fellow musicians and fans alike
have paid countless tributes and looked back at the band's fascinating, drama-filled history.
But, there are several details about Eddie Van Halen that were only revealed after his death.
In the days immediately following Eddie Van Halen's death, the big news was that former
Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar quietly buried the hatchet with his ex-bandmate in early 2020.
During an appearance on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show, he opened up about how his relationship
with Van Halen had become a, quote, "love fest" since they got back in touch. But,
they didn't want to get fans' hopes up for a Van Halen reunion
that was likely never going to happen, so they kept it quiet.
Sadly, Hagar also talked about how Van Halen had apparently become too weak
to reply to his texts during the final month of his life. He said,
"He stopped responding to me a month ago,
and I figured it wasn't good. I reached out one more time last week,
and when he didn't respond, I figured it was a matter of time. But it came way too soon."
Two months after his interview with Stern, Hagar spoke to Variety and dropped additional
information on the bittersweet reconciliation with Van Halen. According to the veteran musician,
comedian George Lopez helped the two get reconnected. He was the one who gave Eddie's
contact information to Hagar and informed him that the guitarist wanted to reach out.
While Hager reconciled with Van Halen, unfortunately former Van Halen bassist
Michael Anthony, who last played with the band in 2004, did not. Before Anthony's final tour
with the group, he supposedly had to sign away his rights to Van Halen's name and logo and
take a pay cut. Eddie had previously asserted that Anthony left the band of his own volition,
but Anthony told Music Radar in 2009 that he, quote, "never quit."
In January 2021, Anthony revealed that he and Van Halen hadn't spoken for several years,
at the time of Halen's death. He said
"It kind of bothers me, because we had some issues that were never resolved, but, I mean,
what can you do? We were on track [for] a reunion. [...] I'm really sad that it never happened.
But, you know, life and the show goes on."
The reunion Anthony was referring to was the "Kitchen Sink Tour,"
an endeavor that was first cooked up in 2018 by Van Halen manager Irving Azoff.
There were plans for Anthony and former vocalists Hagar and Gary Cherone to perform on the tour.
But, the shows never took place due to Eddie Van Halen's declining health.
The fact that Eddie Van Halen had battled different types of cancer for about two
decades before his death was well-documented. Initial reports following his passing noted that
he had died of throat cancer, and that back in 2000, he had been diagnosed with tongue cancer.
He blamed this condition on his habit of holding metal guitar picks in his mouth
However, TMZ obtained a copy of the guitarist's death certificate in December 2020,
which revealed that his immediate cause of death was a stroke. He was also suffering
from skin cancer of the head and the neck, as well as atrial fibrillation,
which increases the risk of stroke by causing an irregular heartbeat.
TMZ also released certain information that was supposed to remain private,
including plans for Eddie's memorial. The late rocker's son, Wolfgang Van Halen, took to social
media to blast the publication for revealing such details without his family's permission.
"If you f--- with my family, especially my father who is unable to defend himself,
you f--- with me. It's my job to do so now and I'll never stop.
So if you've got a problem with that, you can either learn how to get over it or unfollow me."
Mammoth MVH became the band that Van Halen's son, Wolfgang, started in 2015 with some key family
members in the band. But, Van Halen and Mammoth WVH couldn't be more different in terms of sound.
"I guess I just lucked out that the music, I, that comes from my heart
doesn't sound like it's ripping off my family lineage.”
Still, Mammoth WVH is one of a handful of proudly old-school rock acts in an era of
music dominated by genres other than rock n’ roll.
And, it's not surprising that Wolfgang Van Halen picked up quite a lot from his old man
in terms of musical influence — but not too much. Wolfgang told Ultimate Classic Rock,
"He never really tried to push me into any direction. I think the only thing he really
introduced to me was AC/DC, the album 'Powerage' was a big bond for us. 'Down Payment Blues,'
that was my dad's and my favorite song. But from there I kind of developed my own taste."
That own taste, he explained, included bands like the more contemporary Blink-182
and Tool. These were two bands that greatly helped the young musician learn
how to play the drums as a secondary instrument to the guitar and bass.
Eddie Van Halen frequently claimed that Peter Gabriel's 1986 album "So" was the last record he
had ever purchased. Wolfgang backed it up, telling Ultimate Classic Rock that Eddie loved the album
so much that it was the only one he truly insisted his son should listen to. And it looks
like Wolfgang feels the same way, as he considers "So" to be one of his all-time favorite albums.
You would think that someone like Eddie Van Halen, a rock star with such a famous guitar,
would have handled his iconic axe with the utmost care. Not true at all — according to his son,
the rock legend apparently was reckless with his "Frankenstrat."
In a May 2021 interview with Guitar World,
Wolfgang Van Halen revealed that he used his dad's Frankenstrat on a few of the tracks on
his new band Mammoth WVH's self-titled debut album. He also shared that Eddie didn't
exactly follow the usual best practices when handling his famous guitar, saying,
"When we were pulling it out of its safe, Dad picked it up and he was just noodling with it
for a second. He's like, 'Yeah, feels about the same,' and he tossed it onto the couch.
Everyone just gasped when he did that. To Dad, it's just a little piece of junk
that he built himself, but to us, it's the most famous thing in the world."