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Almost a full two years now since his father's death, Wolfgang Van Halen is all but ruling out the idea of a concert tribute to his dad, featuring former members of Van Halen.
Wolfie told Classic Rock magazine in a new interview that he doesn't believe the other surviving members of Van Halen are capable of organizing a tribute anything close to like what the Foo Fighters did for late-drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Wolf performed Van Halen music at both the London and Los Angeles tributes to Hawkins. He says he's grateful to the Foo Fighters for giving him the opportunity to honor both Hawkins — a lifelong Van Halen fan — and his late-father.
"I think I already did [the Van Halen celebration] with the Taylor Hawkins tributes," Wolf said. "I feel a lot of closure because my part of the show was a tribute to my father.
"When it comes to Van Halen and entities surrounding the band it's unfortunate, certainly, compared to Foo Fighters who have their s--t together with interpersonal relationships."
The Mammoth WVH frontman continued, noting that in Van Halen "certain personalities just can't get over themselves to work collectively for one purpose."
He added that the hangup with the tribute has nothing to do with his father's absence; the members of Van Halen have rarely all pulled in the same direction.
"Their camp is very dysfunctional — everyone!" he said. "Hell, it was difficult to make plans even when the band was active."
A year ago, Wolf was adamant that there should be a concert tribute to his father with former members of the band. Longtime Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony confirmed in the spring that he had discussed the idea with Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth and longtime VH manager Irving Azoff, but he was unsure if/when they would move forward.
In July, Wolf began to express doubt publicly that the tribute would come together. He said there was a legitimate attempt to make it happen but "some people can be hard to work with, and made it not happen."
Pressed on who those "difficult people" might be, Wolf said that answer would be apparent to anyone who's "done their research" or followed the band for a long time.