After finding his own style, the late legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen said many times that he hardly listened to other people’s albums because he was always focused on making his own music with his band, Van Halen. Because of that, especially after the 1980s, he rarely talked about other bands in interviews. However, according to his son Wolfgang Van Halen, there were two Progressive Metal bands that he actually liked.
The 2 Progressive Metal bands Eddie Van Halen approved
Tool
The first band is Tool, which he had the chance to see live with his son Wolfgang Van Halen, who is a big fan of the band. According to him, what impressed his father the most was their bassist, Justin Chancellor and later at the backstage he praised guitarist Adam Jones.
“It was so funny, man. While I was at a Tool show with my dad and my uncle Patrick (Bertinelli), my mom’s brother. An amazing concert, first of all. It was very fun to bring dad to that so he could really see the music I really, really like. It resonated with him, in a way, because the first thing he said was like, ‘F*ck, that bass player, man. That was the shit!’ I was like, ‘Yeah! Justin Chancellor is one of my favorite bass players of all time.’ It was so great for dad to be like, ‘F*ck yeah!’ about that,” Wolfgang Van Halen said. Interestingly, Wolf said that Eddie fell asleep during their shows, not because the music was bad, but because he was tired and used to go to bed early.
He said:
“There was even a moment because he was very tired – he goes to bed really early. So it was like during one or two songs, I think he fell asleep at the Tool concert. Not that their music was boring, but he passed out. Because it was like 10 o’clock at that point and he goes to bed at 7:30.”
Another funny thing that happened at that show was when a Tool fan approached Eddie, having no idea who he was, and asked him to take a photo. Eddie promptly accepted, took the picture, and while that was happening, Wolfgang took a photo that he later shared on social media.“Yeah, normally (people wouldn’t recognize him a lot), I was able to go out a lot with him. I remember for my birthday one time, we went to Six Flags and nobody recognized us there.”
He continued:
“It was just a fun day at the rollercoaster. But we were waiting after the show, just kind of standing there because their tour manager was the same as ours, we were gonna go back. We ended up meeting the guys. While we were waiting, some kid walked up to dad. I was like, ‘Oh…’ He’s been recognized a couple of times that night. I thought it was just some guy who’d take pictures with him.”
“But instead, he handed him his phone – ‘Here, I’m gonna go over here. Can you get the picture?’ I think a lot of people misunderstood (me posting the photo and telling what happened) my tweet to a certain extent. Because it wasn’t like, ‘How dare you not recognize Eddie Van Halen?!’ Dad just looked like a dad, you know? People’s imagination of Eddie Van Halen is, like, long, flowing hair. So of course, you wouldn’t recognize him. He (the fan) was a young dude.”
“But it was just so funny to be like, ‘Wow! If he knew who he just asked to take a picture of just him and the stage, he would’ve probably regretted not saying, ‘Hey, can you get in that picture too?’. So the second that happened, my uncle Patrick and I were like, ‘Oh my god!’ That picture I took was the one I posted, and it blew up. So funny,” Wolfgang Van Hale told Eddie Trunk in 2021.
Meshuggah
Another Progressive Metal band that Eddie Van Halen approved of was Meshuggah. According to his son Wolfgang Van Halen, who introduced him to the band, what caught his attention was their drummer. “My dad approved of them. I remember his joke when I showed him the video to (Their most famous song) ‘Bleed’. He said, ‘The drummer better be paid the most! He’s working way harder than anybody else in the band!’” Wolfgang Van Halen told Prog magazine in 2024.
Meshuggah was formed in Sweden in 1987 and became known for their unique style and complex polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. The drummer praised by Eddie is Tomas Haake, who has been a member of the group since 1989. They have released 9 studio albums so far, the most recent one being “Immutable” in 2022.
Curiously, Meshuggah’s music was played at Wolfgang’s wedding, which happened in 2023, three years after his father’s death. The drummer Tomas Haake once talked about that, saying: “And Wolfgang for sure. I’ve probably only seen a few things where he has mentioned us, but, but I do recognize that they played Meshuggah on his wedding. So that’s kind of… [Laughs] I don’t know. Maybe that’s a little much, but you’ve gotta love it, right?” he said in an interview with Full Metal Jackie in 2023. Some of their most famous songs are “Bleed”, “Demiurge”, “Rational Gazer” and “Combustion”.
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