Mammoth

Guest: Florence Black

Also on the road with Guns N' Roses next summer, MAMMOTH have been at home on the biggest stages from the very beginning: First heard opening for GNR in 2021 with hits like "Don't Back Down", shows for Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe were followed by two years of tour support for Metallica (M72 World Tour) from 2023. Between further support for the Foo Fighters, Deep Purple and Creed, there was hardly any room in the tour calendar for their own headline shows - at least until now. In November and December 2026, Mammoth will play five concerts in Germany when they stop off in Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart and Nuremberg to present their latest album "The End" (2025).

From zero to the biggest stages, from a solo restart to well over 100 million streams in just five years - that's pretty unique in the alternative and hard rock segment. But Wolfgang Van Halen had the best prerequisites, because he was able to learn from the greats even before he was born: his father Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020) is said to have often played his guitar directly in front of his wife's belly during pregnancy, which may explain his innate feel for massive hooks. He was given a drum kit for his tenth birthday - which is why the multi-instrumentalist still considers himself "first and foremost a drummer". Nevertheless, he is known to have his dad's legendary tapping skills.

Inspired by Tool, Primus, Muse and Travis Barker, Wolfgang Van Halen first appeared on stage as a bass substitute with the band Van Halen in 2004, before embarking on his first major tour with his father's band a few years later at the age of 16. From 2012, Van Halen played bass with Tremonti. In 2015, he finally founded his own project - MAMMOTH. With his initials added until 2025, the eponymous album "Mammoth WVH" (2021) was followed by the even more successful "Mammoth II" in 2023 - the first studio album to crack the Top 15 in Germany. A Grammy nomination was already secured for the former.

In October 2025, the 34-year-old opened the third album chapter with "The End", for which Van Halen not only composed all the songs single-handedly once again, but also recorded all the instruments himself in addition to the vocals. Together with his producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, he also wanted to get as close as possible to the live feeling in the studio, which is why he recorded the instruments on the fly. "We recorded the demos completely live, and that changed everything," says WVH about album highlights such as the title track "The End", whose video also features his buddy Slash.