During an interview with Howard Stern, Wolfgang Van Halen admits he is still struggling to come to term with the passing of his father following a decade-long battle with cancer.
- November 17, 2020
AceShowbiz - Eddie Van Halen's son has publicly thanked the German doctors who treated his dad's cancer, because they gave him three more years with the guitar great.
Wolfgang Van Halen has revealed American doctors gave his father six weeks to live after he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer back in 2017, but experts in Europe were a lot more hopeful.
"Whatever the f**k they do over there, it's amazing because I got three more years with him," the 29-year-old musician told satellite radio host Howard Stern during an interview on Monday, November 16. "I was with him every step of the way. Every second."
The Van Halen guitarist died on 6 October, following a decade-long battle with cancer that spread to his lungs and brain, and his son told Stern he's still struggling with his dad's death: "I'm awful," he said. "It's terrible. Every day, man. Some days are better than others."
"The pain is still there always, but you just kind of figure out how to carry it a little better as time goes on. But it's always gonna hurt... We had such a close connection and now, for the rest of my life, there's no way I'll never be able to think about him no matter what I do, which is good but also hurts a lot."
Wolfgang used the interview with Stern to ask for Van Halen fans' patience, insisting there will be a tribute concert and the possible release of lost music by his father - but he'd like to take time to grieve the loss of his dad first.
"(There's) a s**t ton of tapes that will take a very, very long time to go through," he explained, referring to all the tracks in Eddie's music vault. "We want to do it right, whenever the time is, but it would be a little shameless to do it right now.
"I don't have a dad anymore and I'm coming to terms with that."
The bassist, who replaced Michael Anthony in Van Halen, also ruled out anymore tours or new music from the band: "I think fans can come to the terms with the fact that we're not going to have Van Halen anymore," he added. "The music is going to live on forever but you can't continue without Eddie Van Halen."
The interview aired on the day Wolfgang released his own tribute to his dad - a song titled "Distance".
A portion of the proceeds from download sales will benefit Eddie's favourite charity, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, which provides musical instruments to underfunded schools.
