Wolfgang Van Halen Reveals His Most Bothersome (and Yet Sometimes Fun) Aspect of Social Media
Mammoth WVH's Wolfgang Van Halen has earned his spot as one of social media's more interesting follows, never failing to put trolls in their place with a smile on his face (and those of other followers as well). During a recent chat with Baltimore's 98 Rock, the musician addressed his online presence, calling out one of the more bothersome aspects that he's seen when interacting with others on social media.
“Social media is just this pile of negativity and just awful, awful things," the singer and multi-instrumentalist explained. "But the thing that bothers me more than just people straight-up being mean — ’cause that’s sort of the status quo; you kind of phase that out — is just people being dumb and getting things wrong that are worth correcting. And so if I have the opportunity to do that while also being funny, I go for it because it’s fun."
Notably, earlier this year, Wolfgang called out one Twitter follower who criticized him for taking advantage of his last name by calling them a "grape" and later changing his Twitter handle to Wolfgang Led Zeppelin after having a little fun with it.
Van Halen added, “If you notice, when I’m not on tour, I’m not on social media as much. I think it’s a part of the job, unfortunately, in this day and age. It’s something you do kind of need to at least be semi in. But I have gravitated further and further away from it over the years."
"You begin to realize how much of a little bubble it is and not how much of an overall example of everything in the world is. I think more and more, as time has gone on, more of the terminally online, so to speak, are kind of there while everybody else is kind of living their life,” he assesses.
As mentioned, Wolfie's screen time may be down a little at the moment as he continues his tour through Europe with the band. He'll be joining up with Motley Crue and Def Leppard for dates next week. A North American tour leg will kick off in August after he catches a breather next month. This all comes as Wolfgang builds to his band's second release, aptly titled Mammoth II, on Aug. 4. The band just released a new song called "Take a Bow" you can hear below the interview. Get their new on vinyl here or via other platforms here.