Wolfgang Van Halen made a joke about his uncle guesting on the upcoming Mammoth WVH album – and it ended up costing him a day and a whole $1.
The album, Mammoth II, will be released later this year as the follow-up to 2021's debut. And ever since the son of the late Eddie Van Halen launched his own project, he has been asked whether any of his family or former Van Halen bandmates would ever guest on his Mammoth material.
The multi-instrumentalist has been resistant to calls from Van Halen fans to play the band's tracks with Mammoth WVH, and he says in a new interview with Guitar Interactive Magazine that he'd only have family guests on his albums as a joke.
One such joke appears on the liner notes for Mammoth II, as Wolfgang's uncle Patrick Bertinelli is credited with operating a Wah Wah pedal.
Wolfgang says: "The one thing that I did do was like a fun little joke. The song I'm Alright, for that solo with the wah...I kind of got bored with the operation of it, so I had my uncle Patrick do it.
"You'll see on the back of the album, 'All songs written and performed by Wolfgang Van Halen, except for wah operation on solo of I'm Alright by Patrick Bertinelli.'
"While I thought it was a funny joke, it actually held back the approval process for the album cover by one day because we had to sign a work-for-hire and pay him $1. So my manager was a bit upset at me for that dumb joke. But I thought it was pretty funny."
On whether it's a joke he's likely repeat, Van Halen adds: "I so badly wanted to do that at one point with Dad, have him play piano or cello or something that wasn't guitar.
"I may have to have Al [Alex Van Halen] play the glockenspiel on a track or something."
Mammoth WVH recently released a video for Another Celebration At The End Of The World, the first taste of Mammoth II.
