Wolfgang Van Halen has responded to the Recording Academy's widely criticized tribute to his late-father Eddie Van Halen at Sunday night's GRAMMY awards.
While the GRAMMYs showcased performers paying tribute to three other lost legends — Little Richard, John Prine and Kenny Rogers — during the show's 'In Memoriam' segment, for Eddie, the show played just a 20-second clip of "Eruption" before moving on.
Furthermore, there was no mention of the guitar innovator at the top of the broadcast during segment on great artists lost during 2020.
While rock fans don't expect much from the Recording Academy in terms of recognition these days, the fact that Wolfgang currently has a song about his late-father at the top of the rock charts only added to the feeling that Van Halen's immortal contributions to music were being ignored.
Wolfgang explained Monday afternoon in a statement that the academy, in fact, did approach him about performing "Eruption" and he declined.
"I don't think anyone could have lived up to what my father did for music but himself," he wrote. "...I didn't realize that they would only show Pop for 15 seconds in the middle of four full performances for others we had lost."
He continued: "What hurt the most was that he wasn’t even mentioned when they talked about artists we lost in the beginning of the show. I know rock isn’t the most popular genre right now, (and the academy does seem a bit out of touch), but I think it’s impossible to ignore the legacy my father left on the instrument, the world of rock, and music in general. There will never be another innovator like him."
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