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And Finally Artist News
Billie Eilish doesn’t have to know who Van Halen are, says Wolf Van Halen
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 3 December 2019
Wolfgang Van Halen has given Billie Eilish permission to not know of him or the band that utilises his family name. Which would be great if she had any idea who he was.
This all stems from an interview on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ last month, where the seventeen year old Eilish was asked if she’d heard of various things that were popular in 1984, which is when the chat show host was the same age as she is now.
For the record, while she was aware of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, she did not know about Huey Lewis, Run DMC, ‘The Cosby Show’, Cabbage Patch Kids, Mr T and ‘Gremlins’, and hadn’t seen the original ‘Ghostbusters’ movie.
The one that has caused the most controversy online, however, is that she was completely perplexed when asked to “name a Van Halen”.
Apparently this is a terrible thing. Van Halen fans believe that the band are so ubiquitous and such a big part of American culture that it can’t be possible to be unaware of them. And said fans have been saying as much on social media over and over again since this all happened a week and a half ago.
Well, now Wolfgang Van Halen has spoken.
“If you haven’t heard of Billie Eilish, go check her out. She’s cool”, he tweeted. “If you haven’t heard of Van Halen, go check them out. They’re cool too. Music is supposed to bring us together, not divide us. Listen to what you want and don’t shame others for not knowing what you like”.
If Wolf(gang) wasn’t the member of the band who immediately sprung to mind when you were trying to “name a Van Halen”, that’s fine. The son of Eddie Van Halen, he only became the group’s bassist in 2007, when they kicked off a reunion that may or may not now have ended. The band haven’t done anything since 2015.
This isn’t the first time Eilish has failed to be fully aware of everything that happened in the history of pop culture. While aware of the Spice Girls, until recently she thought they only existed as a fictional group in the film ‘Spice World’.
Meanwhile, Wolf Van Halen’s Twitter feed is quickly becoming a study of Van Halen’s disappearance from the collective consciousness.
Recently he tweeted that someone at a Tool show had asked his dad to take a photo of them standing in front of the stage. The Tool fan remained oblivious that he could be having his picture taken with the guy who did that stupid ‘Jump’ song.
