In a new interview with Songfacts, Wolfgang Van Halen, who became VAN HALEN‘s bassist in 2006 at the age of 15, was asked which songs he had the most hand in writing on 2012’s “A Different Kind Of Truth”, the sole VAN HALEN studio album he played on. He responded: “‘Stay Frosty’ was an idea Dave [Lee Roth, vocals] brought in that was completely original and not stemming from an older demo, but in terms of structure, I was the one that put it together. It was just this little acoustic ditty, and we were, like, ‘Well, what do we do? We’re not sure.’ I was the one who actually structured the entire song on how it would go. And then there were the more fresher ideas like ‘China Town’ and ‘The Trouble With Never’, which I was really able to insert my own flair into and do the tapping intro with the capo on ‘China Town’. But ideas like that, and ‘You And Your Blues’. ‘As Is’ was a fresher idea. The ideas that were stemming from older ideas were things like ‘She’s The Woman’, ‘Beats Workin”, ‘Bullethead’, ‘Big River’, and stuff like that.”
Asked if there were any leftover songs from the “A Different Kind Of Truth” sessions, Wolfgang said: “There were not. I don’t know where this rumor came out saying that we recorded, like, 60 songs. What’s on the album is everything we recorded. I have no idea where that rumor came from. There was one song we almost did that we wrote in the studio, but it fell apart before we had the chance to do it. It’s so weird — I see VAN HALEN fans on Twitter go, ‘I have the inside track… they recorded like, 60 songs.’ And it’s, like, ‘No. No. No.'”
With Wolfgang on bass, VAN HALEN embarked on lengthy tours in 2007, 2012 and 2015. The band’s final run of shows took place in the summer and fall of 2015. The North American trek included 41 concerts beginning on July 5, 2015 and ending on October 4, 2015.
Last fall, Wolfgang revealed that his father had contemplated a “kitchen-sink” VAN HALEN tour that would have included former bassist Michael Anthony, as well as vocal turns from both Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth. There was even talk about bringing back Gary Cherone, who sang with the band on one poorly received album, 1998’s “Van Halen III”.
In early 2019, a rumor surfaced that the classic VAN HALEN lineup would reunite that summer for a run of stadium shows. This would have been the first time that Michael, David, Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen performed together since 1984.
The rumors originally started with Roth, who hinted to Vulture that VAN HALEN would be playing stadiums with Anthony back in the lineup.
VAN HALEN and Anthony had not been on good terms for more than a decade, with Anthony not invited to join the reunion with Roth that began in 2007.
Anthony took a pay cut and signed away all of his rights to the band name and logo in order to participate in VAN HALEN‘s 2004 tour, which featured Hagar.
Eddie died in October at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California. The iconic VAN HALEN axeman died from complications due to cancer, his son confirmed.
