Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey each had a summer to remember in 2021.
For Mammoth WVH, Wolfgang Van Halen and his bandmates jumped right out of the pandemic shutdown into stadiums, opening for the reunited Guns N’ Roses.
“It was unbelievable,” Wolfgang says. “It was a lot to handle, but it was a very rewarding experience. I was grateful to be a part of it.”
For Marc LaBelle, singer/guitarist of Dirty Honey, he got to spend his summer opening for one of his all-time favorite bands, the Black Crowes.
“I was definitely a huge Black Crowes fan growing up,” says LaBelle, who joined Wolfgang for the interview.
“That was one of the bands that my brother and I specifically really bonded over. When you get that call, it’s extremely exciting. It was their first tour in almost eight years. It was really cool. I have nothing but nice things to say about Chris and Rich (Robinson, founding members of the Black Crowes) both and their relationship and their relationship with us. So yeah, it was a dream come true for me.”
The fact that Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey were selected for two of summer 2021’s biggest rock tours is a good indication of the momentum the two bands have been seeing with their respective careers.
Now Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey have joined forces to start 2022 as co-headliners on the “Young Guns” tour, a further nod to their status as two of the leading acts that are at the forefront of what appears to be a bubbling up of guitar-based rock on today’s music scene.
Each band has a new album to promote. Dirty Honey followed up a popular 2019 self-titled EP with a self-titled debut full-length album last April, and the group’s set figures to spotlight songs from both releases, including “When I’m Gone,” the single from the EP that in 2019 made Dirty Honey the first unsigned independent band to have a No. 1 single on Billboard magazine’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart.
Mammoth WVH, meanwhile, released its self-titled debut album in June, and the Young Guns co-headlining outing will mark Wolfgang’s first opportunity to showcase the album in something close to a headlining set length.
But Wolfgang — yes, he’s the son of Van Halen’s late guitar player Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli — has some other plans for Mammoth WVH’s shows.
“I’m looking forward to maybe experimenting a bit with the set list and maybe trying out some songs that I plan on having on the next album,” he says.
“I think it would be fun to expose some new material to the audience to really show them what’s in store and honestly to maybe in a way audition and shop around the idea on what gets a better response and stuff.”
Indeed the “Mammoth WVH” album was essentially finished in 2017. But Wolfgang put his music career on hold to spend time with his father, who had been in declining health and passed away in October 2020 from cancer.
By that time, Eddie’s son was already familiar to the legion of Van Halen fans because he served as bassist (replacing Michael Anthony) for that band’s arena tours in 2007-08, 2012-13 and 2015.
Wolfgang thoroughly enjoyed being able to tour with his father, but he also weathered a wave of sniping from Van Halen fans who were disappointed Anthony wasn’t invited back into the band for the tours.
“I think for me, for the cynical sort of detractors, of me not needing to be there, I wouldn’t have been a part of it if I couldn’t do it,” Wolfgang says of his tours with Van Halen. “And I think that’s what gave me the confidence. I’m related to Al (Alex Van Halen, drummer and brother of Eddie) and my pop, but it’s like they wouldn’t sacrifice their credibility if they didn’t believe I could do it.”
As it turns out, Wolfgang was not only fully capable of playing bass, but he also learned to play guitar and drums. And while Mammoth WVH has a touring lineup with Wolfgang joined by guitarists Frank Sidoris and Jon Jourdan, bassist Ronnie Ficarro and drummer Garrett Whitlock, Wolfgang made the debut album himself, playing all of the instruments and handling the vocals. It was a challenge he welcomed, and he plans to continue being a one-man band in the studio on future albums.
“I knew I could play the instruments, but I wanted to see if I could actually pull it off and make a cohesive (album) and something that sounds like it’s a band,” Wolfgang says. “I think I achieved what I was trying to do, so it was a fun experiment.”
For Dirty Honey, the pandemic came at an inconvenient point, as the band was on the road building momentum off of “When I’m Gone” and the success of the self-titled EP.
“Touring is obviously our bread and butter, especially being a relatively unknown artist,” LaBelle observes. “You want to get out there and make the effort to make new fans. So, when COVID happened, it was obviously deflating for everybody. But we knew we’d get back.”
The pandemic also changed Dirty Honey’s plans for recording the full-length debut album — in both good and less-good ways. Initially, the band planned to record the album in Australia during a short break between tours, but the pandemic scuttled that idea. Delaying recording, though, gave the group more time to work on songs, and LaBelle feels the self-titled album is better as a result.
“That definitely was the one shining light out of COVID, that we got to make the record and take the time to make it as good as it could be,” LaBelle says.
Of course, the pandemic also meant LaBelle and his bandmates, guitarist John Notto, bassist Justin Smolian and drummer Corey Coverstone, couldn’t get together in a studio with producer Nick DiDia. Instead, they had to work with DiDia over Zoom video calls.
“It was a challenge. None of us wanted to do it like with our producer, obviously, being in Australia and coming in over Zoom to the studio,” LaBelle says. “But the way we had it set up was really flawless. The fluidity of the workflow really surprised all of us. We were really happy with it. But I would never want to do it that way again.”
It seems as if both bands have come out of the forced hiatus of the pandemic in good shape. LaBelle notes that Dirty Honey’s first headlining show following the break was sold out. And the full-length album debuted at No. 2, while the current single, “The Wire,” has cracked the top 20 on Billboard magazine’s Mainstream Rock chart.
Wolfgang, meanwhile, has seen the “Mammoth WVH” album receive positive press and make a strong impact, notching two No. 1 singles so far on the active radio chart in “Distance” and “Don’t Back Down.”
And LaBelle feels that the success of Dirty Honey and Mammoth WVH — and the ability of the two bands to do a tour like Young Guns — is a sign that a resurgence in guitar rock is underway.
“It really feels like now it’s happening, and I’m feeling good about the future and the state of rock ’n’ roll, actually, for once,” LaBelle says
