Wolfgang Van Halen Not Interested In Sammy Hagar Jam

By Editorial Staff | Published: Mar 04, 2026 2:55 PM EST

Wolfgang Van Halen is sorry to disappoint Van Hagar fans but he revealed in a recent interview that he has no interest in jamming any Van Halen classics with former VH frontman Sammy Hagar, as he wants to keep his focus on his own group Mammoth.

A fan from Atlantic City called into SiriusXM's Trunk Nation and asked Wolfgang, "I got a two-part question. The first part will be quick. Would you ever jump on stage with Hagar on the Best of All Worlds Tour and do a Van Halen song?

"And B the main question I had is when your dad was falling ill and you were prepping the Mammoth album and you had it supposedly you had it going for a while, did you and your dad ever jam out the songs on your first album? Like when you were going over them, like did you play them together ever or like him on whatever, him on guitar, drums, bass, because I know he does it all. Did you ever do that? I always wanted to ask you. I thought that would have been so cool if you did. What an event for you like looking back."

Wolfgang Van Halen responded, "It's a good question. Okay. So, one, no. I know that's not what people want to hear, but it's not something I'm interested in doing. I really want to build my own thing, and I think I don't really want to play much of Van Halen music without my dad, anyways. And two, yes, actually in December of 2014 when I was getting ready to track what would be the beginning of Mammoth. It was January 2015 that we started the original tracks. I actually have a video, it's a really terribly filmed video because it's right next to my high-hat on my cell phone, so it's just all high-hat, total noise. But on a song that actually ended up on the end, the song 'Selfish,' I have a video of my dad and I jamming on that song in 2014, which is crazy to think that it came out last year. That's how long that idea has been around. And I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I got on drums, and we jammed through the song together a couple of times. And that's a video I hold very close. I love that. The reason I haven't ever posted it is because it's just, I don't know, you can barely hear it. You know, I probably should have put the phone camera somewhere else. But yeah, we did. He really, I don't think it ever got out how stoked Dad was about it. He loved the music so much. And he heard a lot of what would end up on the next few albums, because the 28 songs I wrote at the very beginning of Mammoth in 2015, kind of got spread out because certain ideas weren't done yet.

"So songs like 'Miles Above Me' on Mammoth II and songs like 'Selfish' and 'Something New' that just came out on the end were part of those ideas. So he knew those ideas and loved them. So I think he'd be super stoked. You know, it's a tough, it's emotional thing, you know, every time I, every positive thing that happens to me has a tinge of sadness because it's like, 'Dang, I really wish I could have shared this with Dad. I wish he could have seen it. He would be stoked.' Like, I think he really would have loved 'I Really Wanna' on this new record just for the riff itself and that it was drop A. Like he, I could just see him be like, 'That's killer,' because he always loved the first note in the chorus of 'Epiphany.' If you know the song, when we tracked the bass on it for that first note we de-tuned it so it was a low B so it just had this big rumble, and he always loved that first hit. You know, you kind of make that stank face when you're listening to stuff that you like. He loved that so I know he would dig it."