Wolfgang Van Halen, son of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen and bassist for Van Halen from 2006 to 2012, recently shed light on the mysterious disappearance of the 2012 album A Different Kind Of Truth from streaming platforms. The reason? A contract expiration, along with some less-than-enthusiastic individuals who seem to be blocking its return to the digital airwaves.
During an appearance on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, Wolfgang said that the contract for the album to be on streaming services ran out and that the band has been working on solving the issue, but that there are "some people involved who do not like that record and are not making it easy to get it back up."
When asked if these "people" were involved in the record, Wolfgang replied, "Yeah." He then hesitated when asked if this person might be commonly known by three initials, but eventually confirmed that it is Van Halen singer David Lee Roth.
"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. So, I hope people who like it have a physical version of it."
Wolfgang also said that he does not have a relationship with Roth and that he has "no idea why things are so difficult" when it comes to the singer signing off on any Van Halen-related projects.
"I think that's why I'm having such a wonderful time with [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. And I think that's why I've been so excited to do Mammoth and to have something from its inception be something pure where you can talk about things and there's not really any big challenges other than weathering the storm together instead of the storm being dealing with each other. You know what I'm saying?"
It's not clear why Roth doesn't like the album. A Different Kind of Truth was the band's first album of new material since 1998, and a critical and commercial success, entering the US Billboard 200 at No. 2, selling 188,000 copies in its first six days of release.
