Wolfgang Van Halen surprised the crowd at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Saturday night (Oct. 2) when he strutted on stage to help headliners Guns N’ Roses close the show with their encore of “Paradise City.”
The son of late Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen has been on the road with the GNR all summer on their stadium/arena tour, opening up gigs with his band Mammoth WVH. The superstar summit came on the second-to-last show on the tour, with Guns singer Axl Rose inviting out their guest with an enthusiastic introduction.
“Wolfgang Van Halen,” Rose said. “Do you know how cool it is to say that? That’s f—ing cool. You don’t understand. We’re talking legacy.” Taking his spot at the front of the stage alongside Guns lead guitarist Slash and sharing a mic with bassist Duff McKagan to sing backup vocals, Wolfie crunched out some big riffs and then crowded around the same mic to add vocal harmonies alongside Slash and Duff.
It was the latest on-stage surprise from GNR, who debuted a raging new song, “Hard Skool” at a show last week after releasing the recorded version. Originally bearing the working title “Jackie Chan,” “Hard Skool” is a studio recording of a previously unreleased effort from the 2008 Chinese Democracy era.
On it, Axl Rose sings: “But you had to play it cool, had to do it your way/Had to be a fool, had to throw it all away/Too hard school and you thought you were here to stay/ If that were true, it wouldn’t matter anyway.”
Watch the video below.
