Wolfgang Van Halen played the ultimate prank on fans at Mammoth‘s Cincinnati show for April Fool’s day last night (April 1).
The rocker shared a clip on social media from the show where he teased that the band was going to play a particular song Van Halen said he’d “never” play. The text on the video read, “You won’t believe what he finally played!” to build anticipation.
“I always said, ‘Never say never’ and I think tonight might be a really fun night,” Van Halen said to the crowd as an overly-excited fan shouted “Fuck yeah!” in the background.
“I don’t know if I’m gonna keep doing this, maybe this could just be our little secret. But I think there’s some people out there that really deserve this and I think it could be really fun. So without further ado.”
Mammoth then broke out into a cover — of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” not of “Panama” or anything else by Van Halen that the crowd was most likely expecting.
Got ’em! They were Rickrolled by Van Halen. Check out the video below.
Although the rocker played bass in Van Halen when they reunited with David Lee Roth from 2006 through 2015, he’s rejected the idea of playing any of his dad’s band’s hits on his own ever since he publicly launched Mammoth in late 2020.
READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen Offers His Support to New Van Halen Album
“I could easily just shack up and be like, ‘I’m the only place where you can hear ‘Panama’ being played by a Van Halen’ but I would never want to do that,” Van Halen said during an appearance on The Cody Tucker Show.
“My dad had a really good quote back in the day when they were doing a lot of covers on the album Diver Down and he didn’t like that. He said, ‘I would rather fail on my own than succeed with somebody else’s material.’ And that’s exactly how I feel about playing Van Halen stuff.”
Mammoth are currently touring the U.S. in support of their latest release The End. See the rest of the band’s upcoming dates on their website and check out the other rock and metal bands touring in 2026 below.
2026 Rock + Metal Tour Guide
These are the biggest rock and metal tours happening in 2026 so far, including Metallica, Iron Maiden, My Chemical Romance and more.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
