Tragic Details About Wolfgang Van Halen's Health Are Heartbreaking

The following article discusses mental health issues.

It's easy to assume that Wolfgang Van Halen's life has been smooth sailing. The only child of rock legend Eddie Van Halen and Golden Globe-winning actor Valerie Bertinelli, Wolfgang grew up wanting for nothing. But all the money in the world can't protect someone from suffering from mental health issues, and Wolfgang is no exception. The Mammoth frontman has struggled with depression and anxiety for years. His issues reached an all-time high in 2024, when he boarded a plane to play with Metallica in Mexico City.

Wolfgang had been feeling nervous about performing at a 7,350-foot elevation, but he felt confident he could keep his anxiety under control. After all, he was stoked about the opportunity. "I didn't get a lot of sleep before the flight. I already hate flying to begin with. I'm just a very anxious person," he told Rolling Stone in November 2025. When the panic attack hit, it swept Wolfgang completely off his feet. The sweating, the overwhelming nausea, the cold, the blurred vision.

"I'd never been aware of how badly that could happen. That feeling of feeling like everything was over and ending," he said. He thought he knew what a panic attack was before, but he was mistaken. "It f***ed me up. It felt like it was forever, but it was probably about a 10-minute thing," he told "Classic Rock" (via Guitar.com). After the experience, Wolfgang found himself in a never-ending loop of fear of having another attack. "At any time, I can just freak out," he said. It was the culmination of many years of struggle. 

Wolfgang Van Halen has experienced plenty of tragedy in his life, many of which contributed to his mental health struggles. Eddie Van Halen's death and Eddie and Valerie Bertinelli's divorce all hit Wolfgang pretty hard. But he was unprepared to handle the effects of internet bullying. "I don't think my emotional and mental well-being have been any lower," he told Guitar World in 2022 (via Guitar.com). "It's a thing that is incredibly tough to fight."

The vicious attacks often send Wolfgang's depression into a downward spiral. "There's many times when I don't have the strength to do anything, and more [often] than not, that seems to be the case," he explained. Those experiences, paired with the traumatic loss of his father to cancer, completely transformed him. "I'm a very different person. [2015] Wolfie has been through a lot of s*** to become the Wolfie I am today, especially in the last three years," he explained.

The internet trolls exacerbated issues he had struggled with prior, particularly the weight of following in his iconic father's footsteps. "I guess I am my toughest critic," he said in the "Classic Rock" interview in 2025. "And growing up in the scrutiny of the public eye, since I was 14, I think might have a lot to do with that; issues that I've got to work on." And he has worked on them, sharing that he has been to therapy and uses medication for his mental health. But it's a process. "It's just a matter of working your way through it," he said.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.