Wolfgang Van Halen Explained Band Name Change (2025 In Review)

12-22-2025

Wolfgang Van Halen Explained Band Name Change was a top 25 story of May 2025 in our look back at the Year In Rock. Here is the original report: Wolfgang Van Halen has explained why he has dropped his initials from the end of the name of his band Mammoth WVH, now just Mammoth in homage to his late father Eddie Van Halen's first band.

The multi-instrumentalist just released a new song "The End", and many noticed that the release was credited to Mammoth without the WVH. Wolfgang explained the move during a Q&A at WDHA's "Mammoth For Ya' Mama!" event on May 11th in Teaneck, NJ.

He explained, "It's what we wanted the whole time. It was supposed to be a direct reference to my Dad's, the first band where he was the singer, 'cause I'm playing guitar and I'm singing."

Van Halen said of the name origin, "I was nervous. I have early demos for the song 'Mammoth'. It was called 'Mammoth I', because it was the first idea I ever wrote that was, like, 'It's gonna be for my band Mammoth.' I think it was in, like, 2013 that I wrote the idea.

"And I didn't ask Dad until, like, 2016. I think we were on that last tour. And I was like, 'Hey, Pop, is that cool if I call my band Mammoth?' And he was, like, 'F***, yeah.' And I don't know why I was so nervous to ask him, because, God, he was the most supportive person other than my mom in my life."