Van Halen Legacy Fades as David Lee Roth Takes Aim at Wolfgang in Fiery YouTube Rant

The echoes of tension within the legendary rock band Van Halen persist even after its official end with the passing of guitarist Eddie Van  in 2020. David Lee Roth, the iconic singer, ignited a verbal assault on Wednesday (Jan. 24) targeting Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen. Wolfgang, who served as the band’s bassist from 2007 to 2015, has since found success with his own project, Wolfgang WVH.

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Van Halen

In a scathing YouTube video, Roth repeatedly refers to Wolfgang as “this fuckin’ kid” and dubs him a “schlemiel” (Yiddish for “fool”). Roth taunts Wolfgang for supposedly benefiting from nepotism and expresses frustration over an incident where Wolfgang allegedly ousted an accountant, mistakenly believed to be Roth’s girlfriend, from a backstage area. A representative for Wolfgang Van Halen was not immediately available for comment.

The video commences with a mocking interview, portraying Wolfgang as “Jesus Christ” and insinuating that he landed the role solely due to his talent rather than his father’s legacy. Roth ridicules Wolfgang for claiming the singer didn’t pay enough attention to him onstage, alleging that Wolfgang sought revenge by ejecting a woman from two concerts. According to Roth, Wolfgang believed the woman was Roth’s girlfriend, but she was, in fact, the tour’s payroll accountant, denied free tickets by the Van Halen family.

Wolfgang has refrained from directly criticizing Roth, though in a 2022 Rolling Stone interview, he hinted that the singer obstructed a planned tribute concert for Eddie Van . Wolfgang remarked, “There are some people that make it very difficult to do anything when it comes to Van Halen… Apparently, some people are too full of themselves to let other people have a good time.”