Wolfgang Van Halen’s April Fools’ Rickroll Prank Delights Crowd

Wolfgang Van Halen tricked his Cincinnati audience on April 1. He played Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" after hinting he might perform a Van Halen classic. The Mammoth frontman rickrolled everyone before launching into his band's track "Don't Back Down."

Wolfgang paused mid-show to address fans with what seemed like a big announcement, The PrP reports. "I always said never say never," he told the crowd. "I don't know if I'm gonna keep doing this, maybe this can just be our little secret. But I think there's some people out there that deserve this, and I think it could be really fun."

Then he started playing Rick Astley's 1987 hit, to the crowd's surprise. He teased the intro to "Never Gonna Give You Up" two more times before actually performing "Don't Back Down." Eddie Van Halen's son posted footage of the moment on his Instagram with the caption "A serious talk in Cincinnati this evening."

Wolfgang has rejected the idea of performing his father's band's songs at his own shows. He served as a touring member of Van Halen from 2006 through 2015, playing bass when they reunited with David Lee Roth.

"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," he said during an interview. "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."

The band is touring in support of their latest album, The End, which was released last year. All tour dates are on the band's website.