Wolfgang Van Halen has set the record straight regarding a topic of controversy among Van Halen fans.
In August of 2007, after David Lee Roth rejoined Van Halen for a tour featuring Wolfgang on bass, the band’s official website shortly displayed a version of their self-titled 1978 debut album with a photo of Wolfgang where Anthony used to be. They also included a text-only cover of 1980’s ‘Women and Children First’ album, which originally featured a band photo. The following day both albums were returned to their original covers which, as Wolfgang has now revealed, was ordered by the band. He also stated they had no part in deciding on the initial album cover change.
During a Twitter Q&A a fan addressed Wolfgang’s replacement of Anthony in ‘07 saying, “As a fan of decades, I think you replacing Mike was not the issue, it’s HOW IT WAS DONE. The attempt to remove Mike from VH history, including replacing him with you on albums that predated your birth by decades, created bad will.”
Wolfgang responded, “Yeah, and that was some dumbass on the website that did that dumb photoshop shit. Not a band decision. We were never cool with that. It was ridiculous. Which is why when we found out about it, it was undone immediately.”