\n<\/p>\n
Wolfgang Van Halen<\/a> played the ultimate prank on fans at Mammoth<\/a>‘s Cincinnati show for April Fool’s day last night<\/a> (April 1).<\/p>\n The rocker shared a clip on social media from the show\u00a0where 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.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n “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. \u00a0So without further ado.”<\/p>\n Mammoth then broke out into a cover \u2014 of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” not of “Panama” or anything else by Van Halen<\/a> that the crowd was most likely expecting.<\/p>\n Got ’em! They were Rickrolled by Van Halen. Check out the video below.<\/p>\n Although the rocker played bass in Van Halen when they reunited with David Lee Roth<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Wolfgang Van Halen Offers His Support to New Van Halen Album<\/a><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n “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\u00a0The Cody Tucker Show<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n “My dad had a really good quote back in the day when they were doing a lot of covers on the album\u00a0Diver Down<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>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.”<\/p>\n Mammoth are currently touring the U.S. in support of their latest release\u00a0The End.\u00a0<\/em>See the rest of the band’s upcoming dates on their website<\/a> and check out the other rock and metal bands touring in 2026 below.<\/p>\n These are the biggest rock and metal tours happening in 2026 so far, including Metallica, Iron Maiden, My Chemical Romance and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n2026 Rock + Metal Tour Guide<\/h2>\n