Wolfgang Van Halen said Van Halen’s final album, A Different Kind of Truth, was absent from streaming sites because David Lee Roth wouldn’t allow its return.
According to Eddie Van Halen’s son, the singer has a problem with the 2012 release, which featured Wolfgang replacing founding bassist Michael Anthony, and so when the most recent deals expired he wouldn’t give permission to renew them.
“The contract ran out on putting it up on streaming services,” Van Halen told Eddie Trunk on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk. “So we’ve been working on getting it back – but there are some people involved who do not like that record and are not making it easy to get it back up.”
READ MORE: All 75 David Lee Roth-Era Van Halen Songs Ranked Worst to Best
At first he seemed reluctant to provide more details, but Trunk received confirmation when he asked if the issue arose with someone “involved in the record” and someone who was “commonly… known by three initials” – seeming to suggest Roth.
“Probably,” Van Halen said. “I mean, yeah, you can put it together. I hate to say it – because people will think I’m making stuff up – but it’s like, man, I’d love to have the record back up there, but he doesn’t like it and he’s not working with us to get it back up there.” He added: “So I hope people who like it have a physical version of it!”
Wolfgang Van Halen Loves Being Out of the Van Halen ‘Storm’
He went on to say that he didn’t understand why “things are so difficult” when it comes to negotiating with Roth over Van Halen projects, but that it added to his appreciation of working with his own band, Mammoth WVH. “I think throughout my time in Van Halen, you learn things that you wanna do and you wanna apply, and then you also learn things that you don’t wanna apply,” he reflected.
Van Halen Lineup Changes
Three different singers and two different bassists joined the Van Halen brothers over the years.
