Wolfgang Van Halen recalled a moment in his childhood that demonstrated just how supportive his late father, Eddie Van Halen, was as a parent.

The younger Van Halen has often discussed how his dad encouraged him to be who he wanted to be, while never forcing him to follow a music career if he didn't want to.

In a new interview with Audio Ink Radio, the Mammoth WVH leader was asked if there was a moment when he realized he had finally impressed his dad . “I mean, he was a very impressed father,” he noted. “He cheered me on in everything, from me playing soccer to, gosh, this one time where I threw a pumpkin at a teacher who was mean to me in kindergarten. He told me to not miss the next time!”

Wolfgang explain that "it was one of those little pumpkins. It wasn’t a big one. But he just cheered me on in literally everything, and he couldn’t have been happier with the music. He was the only other person who had all the ideas on his phone, other than me. He even had stuff that kind of hit the cutting-room floor that’ll probably show up on another album or something. So, he was definitely the proudest parent.”

He also admitted that, before Guns N’ Roses announced Mammoth WVH as their opening act on tour this summer, he tried not to get too excited about the idea.

“Management had kind of said that it was a possibility, because they were interested, and of course it just seemed like way too pie-in-the-sky,” he noted. “So I was just like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to let my hopes down early, because there’s no way it will happen.’ And then they called me and were like, ‘Hey, it looks like it’s going to happen.’ I still can’t believe it.”

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Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening

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