“I don’t normally talk so openly about things, so this was new for me”: Wolfgang Van Halen says taking part in Behind The Music was “incredibly cathartic”

Wolfgang Van Halen has spoken about how “incredibly cathartic” it was to tell his story in a new episode of the iconic docuseries Behind The Music.

Taking to social media to share the trailer for the show, the Mammoth WVH frontman admitted that it has been “difficult” to open up about his father in front of the cameras.

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“I had the honour of being asked to tell my story on Behind The Music,” Wolfgang wrote. “It was difficult, but also incredibly cathartic being able to reflect on my experiences, the incredible people I’m blessed to have in my life and most importantly, my bond with my father.”

“I don’t normally talk so openly about things, so this was new for me,” he added. “Thank you to Alex Castino for making the process as easy and as comfortable as possible and thank you to Behind The Music and Paramount Plus for deciding that my story is worth telling.”

Wolfgang appears on Season 2, Episode 3 of Behind The Music. New episodes will also spotlight artists like Bell Biv DeVoe and Trace Adkins.

I had the honor of being asked to tell my story on Behind The Music. It was difficult, but also incredibly cathartic being able to reflect on my experiences, the incredible people I’m blessed to have in my life and most importantly, my bond with my father. I don’t normally talk… pic.twitter.com/bRClierLkp

— Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) May 2, 2024

Valerie Bertinelli — actress and ex-wife of the late Eddie Van Halen — has also shared her thoughts after watching her son’s Behind The Music episode.

“I was finally able to watch Wolfie’s ‘Behind The Music’. It was not easy,” Bertinelli said in a candid post on Instagram, adding that she’d “stopped it many times” as it was “just too brutal to watch for many reasons.”

“One, seeing Wolfie’s pain. Two, seeing what a better job I could have done as a parent. Even though he turned out magnificently, I made a lot of mistakes. And three, seeing what I had turned of Ed’s and my relationship into some sort of fantasy-soulmate recreation of history.”

“I fell in love with him when I was 20, and it rapidly declined into drugs and alcohol and infidelity,” she continued. “Nothing that makes you feel loved and wanted and cared for. Nothing that would scream ‘soulmate,’ that’s for sure. And after Ed died, I was more than willing to put myself in the ‘grieving widow’ category for a man that I hadn’t lived with for 20 years.”

“What we had together was this beautiful son that we both unconditionally loved. That’s what I got out of that marriage. It was Wolfie. The best thing that ever happened to me. Not a soulmate.”

The new Behind The Music episode with Wolfgang Van Halen is available on Paramount+.