Wolfgang Van Halen still can’t catch a break from social media trolls.
The Mammoth WVH bandleader — who released his debut album in June and recently completed a massive U.S. tour opening for Guns N’ Roses — is no stranger to sparring online with Van Halen fans who want him to play songs from his late father, Eddie Van Halen, in concert. Despite repeatedly explaining why he refuses to do so, Wolfgang once again found himself swatting away members of the peanut gallery.
The scuffle began when one Twitter user asked Wolfgang in a now-deleted tweet, “Why after all your resistance against Van Halen fans did you decide to add WVH to your band name? Honest question.” Wolfgang kindly supplied the obvious answer: ”Last I checked it was my fuckin’ name.”
The multi-instrumentalist further aired his frustrations in a brief thread: “It’s this dumb shit where people pull things out of context and boil shit down in dumb ways so they can be mad at me that pisses me off.”
Wolfgang also insisted he harbors no ill will toward fans of his father’s band. “I’ve never had resistance against VH fans,” he tweeted. “All I’ve ever said is: 1) You’ll never hear VH at a Mammoth show. 2) I’ll never ‘replace’ my father in VH and continue the band. But y’all just keep finding new reasons to hate me daily. It’s fucking exhausting.”
Earlier in the night, Wolfgang also shut down a fan who suggested he host one concert with former Van Halen singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar in order to “bring closure” to fans. “I have no idea why you people think this is my problem to fix,” Wolfgang replied. “If I have to come to terms with not having a dad, these people can come to terms with not seeing a band live again.”
The tweet echoed another humorous response that Wolfgang gave in August to yet another fan who urged him to “honor Dad” by working some Van Halen covers into his set. ”I honor my dad by existing and doing what I do every day,” Wolfgang wrote at the time. “I’m not fuckin’ playing ‘Panama‘ for you guys.”