Last month, Wolfgang Van Halen unveiled his debut solo single ‘Distance.’ A moving tribute to his late father, pioneering rocker Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on October 6th following a lengthy battle with lung cancer.
Wolfgang recently sat down with 95.5 KLOS, for an extensive interview that saw him delve into his solo music endeavours, dealing with the grief of his father’s passing and his experience with trolls accusing him of riding the coattails of his dad’s legacy.
When asked about how he has been coping over the past few weeks, Wolfgang shared: “The past two days have been a little nicer, but overall I think we can all agree that 2020’s been the worst year ever.”
He continued, “personally, the past month has been the worst month of my life, but the past two days have been pretty crazy, pretty incredible actually.
“I’ve never been able to go on my phone before and see such an overwhelming amount of positive things that I’m having, which is pretty crazy.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Wolfgang was asked how he has managed to brush off critics that have lambasted him for releasing music following Eddie’s passing.
“Yeah, it’s funny because you got to think about where those people are in their lives to be able to be comfortable saying such horrible things,” he shared.
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“And it’s like, ‘Man, you know what? They’re probably going through a lot, best just let it roll off my back.’ In person, they’d probably be super-nice.”
Wolfgang Van Halen unleashed his debut single, ‘Distance’ on November 17th. The track was written for Eddie whilst he was battling cancer. As Wolfgang explains, it was his way of “imagining what my life would be without him and how terribly I’d miss him.”
“No matter what the distance is, I will be with you,” he sings on the track.
The soaring, stadium-ready track saw Wolfgang play all the instruments and tackle vocal duties. It’s been released under Mammoth WVH — an homage to Eddie’s pre-Van Halen bands.
“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:
