
Results 1 to 15 of 16
-
10.05.21, 05:51 AM #1
- Join Date
- 06.17.00
- Location
- ShangriLa
- Posts
- 12,193
- Posts Per Day
- 1.35
- Favorite VH Album
Fair Warning - Favorite VH Song
Hear About it Later - Last Online
Yesterday @ 05:49 PM - Likes (Given)
- 6074
- Likes (Received)
- 6023
- Thanks (Given)
- 4006
- Thanks (Received)
- 3415
Achievements:
Awards:
Wolfgang Van Halen in The New Yorker Magazine
The New Yorker
October 11, 2021 Issue
Rachel, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross . . . and Wolfgang
Wolfgang Van Halen, the front man of Mammoth WVH and the son of Eddie Van Halen, pays a visit, in between stadium shows with Guns N’ Roses, to his happy place: the Friends Experience, in Gramercy Park.
By Mark Yarm
October 4, 2021
Wolfgang Van Halen, the front man of the band Mammoth WVH, settled into an armchair in a replica of Central Perk, the coffee shop on the sitcom “Friends.”
He was about to embark on a private, off-hours tour of the Friends Experience, an “interactive celebration” of the show, in Gramercy Park. (Tickets usually start at forty-five dollars.)
Van Halen was dressed all in black: shorts, T-shirt, a Mammoth hoodie, and two masks. Despite being the son of the late guitar god Eddie Van Halen, he is an unlikely rock star.
A self-described “dork” who struggles with anxiety, he doesn’t drink or smoke or do drugs. “I do not have the personality type required for my job,” Van Halen said softly, hands tucked into his sweatshirt pockets.
During downtime on the road—his band was opening stadium shows for Guns N’ Roses—he usually likes to play the video game Apex Legends with his band’s guitarist Frank Sidoris.
For today’s outing, Van Halen was joined by Sidoris, Van Halen’s uncle and “consigliere” Patrick Bertinelli, and seven others.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Van Halen would often watch “Friends” on DVD with his mom, the actress Valerie Bertinelli, after school. “I remember watching the finale live,” he said, flashing back to 2004. “That makes me feel so old.” Van Halen is thirty.
The musician, who still lives in L.A., said that his favorite “Friends” character is Chandler Bing, played by Matthew Perry.
“Chandler is one of the main reasons I’m a sarcastic person,” Van Halen said. He offered, as evidence of his sarcasm, his Twitter account, on which he enjoys sparring with trolls, such as JokersWild45, who questioned whether Eddie, who died in October, 2020, of cancer, was indeed Wolfgang’s father.
(“I’m super curious how homeboy got a sample of my dna to test these ‘theories,’ ” Wolfgang tweeted.)
Valerie Bertinelli, it turns out, had a chance at a role on “Friends,” as Carol, Ross’s pregnant ex-wife, but she didn’t take the meeting.
“My reason was pathetic,” she wrote in her 2008 memoir. “I felt too fat to stand next to Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow.”
Her son understands: “We could both really use a dose of confidence.” Van Halen has been performing professionally since he was fifteen, when he replaced Michael Anthony as the bassist in the band Van Halen, touring (and later recording) with his father, his uncle Alex, and David Lee Roth.
More recently, he sang and played every instrument on Mammoth’s self-titled début LP, which went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Hard Rock Albums charts.
One thing Van Halen has confidence in: his “Friends” knowledge. “Nobody can beat me at ‘Friends’ trivia,” he said.
Walking through the eighteen-room Friends Experience, a warren of Instagram ops, he expounded on the props and costumes on display.
For instance: “Ross can’t find a Santa costume, so he gets an armadillo costume to try and teach his son about Hanukkah.”
He gravitated toward a vitrine containing Phoebe’s acoustic guitar, on which she performed the ditty “Smelly Cat.” The headstock bore the Gibson logo, but Van Halen was doubtful. “It just looks like a stage prop,” he said.
He recorded a couple of tracks on the Mammoth album with his dad’s red, white, and black Frankenstein guitar, a copy of which is in the National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C.
Van Halen moved on to the gift shop. Because the exhibition was technically closed, no one was there to work the register.
Still, Van Halen eyed a cotton tote bearing the words “crap bag.” He explained the reference: it involved Paul Rudd’s character, Mike, adopting the name Crap Bag. Van Halen said that as soon as he got back to the tour bus he planned to go online and buy one.
“It’s just funny: a bag with the word ‘crap’ on it—simple,” he said. “I’ll carry my groceries in there.” ♦
Published in the print edition of the October 11, 2021, issue, with the headline “Among Friends.”
Mark Yarm is the author of “Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge.”Nature's intent is neither food, nor drink, nor clothing, nor comfort, nor anything else in which God is left out.
Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly nature seeks, hunts, tries to ferret out the track on which God may be found. . .
- Meister Eckhart,
14th Century Mystic
🙏🪷🕉
-
Thanks / Likes - 2 LikesJedi McFly, DFVH5150 Liked This Post
10.05.21, 09:46 AM
#2


- Join Date
- 12.25.99
- Age
- 52
- Location
- Pasadena, CA, USA
- Posts
- 18,174
- Posts Per Day
- 1.98
- Favorite VH Album
Fair Warning - Favorite VH Song
Hear About It Later - Last Online
Yesterday @ 11:09 PM - Likes (Given)
- 4143
- Likes (Received)
- 4369
- Thanks (Given)
- 2792
- Thanks (Received)
- 2297







Okay, then.
Little Dreamer
10.05.21, 10:02 AM
#3


- Join Date
- 10.08.06
- Posts
- 74,441
- Posts Per Day
- 11.11
- Last Online
Yesterday @ 11:09 PM - Likes (Given)
- 4251
- Likes (Received)
- 10375
- Thanks (Given)
- 2544
- Thanks (Received)
- 11834

Achievements:








WVHNY.PNG
Wolfgang Van Halen Illustration by Joăo Fazenda
... yawn!
10.05.21, 10:19 AM
#4


- Join Date
- 03.05.02
- Age
- 52
- Location
- Detroit MI
- Posts
- 11,846
- Posts Per Day
- 1.41
- Favorite VH Album
FUCK or 5150 - Favorite VH Song
Mine All Mine, 5150 - Last Online
02.06.25 @ 08:33 AM - Likes (Given)
- 2208
- Likes (Received)
- 1123
- Thanks (Given)
- 1702
- Thanks (Received)
- 1898




I didn't see this coming...lol
nothing wrong with it, I like the show.
Thanks / Likes - 1 Likes
James in New York Liked This Post
10.05.21, 10:23 AM
#5


- Join Date
- 10.08.06
- Posts
- 74,441
- Posts Per Day
- 11.11
- Last Online
Yesterday @ 11:09 PM - Likes (Given)
- 4251
- Likes (Received)
- 10375
- Thanks (Given)
- 2544
- Thanks (Received)
- 11834

Achievements:








"The One Where Wolfgang Tours The Friends Experience"
Thanks / Likes - 3 Likes
I have a feeling Tulsi Gabbard will last the longest in Trump's cabinet and will eventually take over MAGA when he's out of office. Sorry Vance, but he's milquetoast. Tulsi is the future!
THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY