If you were holding out for unreleased Van Halen material to leave the esteemed home-studio vaults, don’t hold your breath.
Wolfgang Van Halen has revealed that he hasn’t yet entertained the idea of looking through the mythologised archives of his late fathers work.
“That’s not gonna happen for a long time,” he told The Oakland Press. “I have no idea what’s in there that would be worth releasing. To a certain extent, my dad released all the good stuff.”
He continued, “even without the intention to release, I want to archive it properly and digitize it, so everything is safe for years to come. It’s going to be an incredibly difficult process and a very long process to do properly.”
Wolfgang mused that he’s noticed that when an iconic musician passes, their death is often met with haphazard compilation albums that don’t do justice to their legacy as an artist.
“I think when a very important musician passes, you usually see right away the compilations of unreleased music that maybe should have stayed unreleased, and it just seems like a cash grab to take hold of the moment,” he explained.
“I’ve always disagreed with that, so if we’re ever gonna do anything with the vault, I want to make sure we do it right and do something that dad would be okay with. So I humbly ask the Van Halen fan base to not hold their breath on this, because you’ll pass out.”
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Van Halen’s last album, A Different Kind of Truth, was released in 2012.
Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6th following a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 65.
Following his death, Wolfgang Van Halen unveiled his debut solo single, ‘Distance’. The track is a homage to his father and was penned in the throes of Eddie’s cancer battle.
“I never intended ‘Distance’ to be the very first piece of music people would hear from me, but I also thought my father would be here to celebrate its release. This is for him. I love and miss you, Pop,” Wolfgang shared in a statement at the time.
Check out ‘Distance’ by Wolfgang Van Halen:
