Eddie Van Halen's Advice For What To Do If You Mess Up Onstage

You don't become a virtuoso without picking up a few tricks along the way, and Eddie Van Halen had plenty of them.

Wolfgang Van Halen revealed his father's best musical lesson in a new interview with Sweden's Rock Sverige. Apparently the wisdom goes back at least a generation to Wolfie's jazz musician grandfather.

"My favorite one — and it's a bit tongue-in-cheek and it was something his dad [Jan Van Halen] taught him: 'If you ever make a mistake, do it twice so that everyone thinks you meant to do it.'"

Wolfgang has maintained that he's mostly self-taught on all the musical instruments he plays, as his pop was "the worst guitar teacher." He explained to Howard Stern last fall that Eddie had a hard time slowing down his musical brain enough to relate to a novice.

"I'll ask him to play something and then he just proceeds to be Eddie Van Halen, and that's a very tough bar to reach as a beginner," Wolfie said of his first guitar lesson. "He's like, 'Well do this!' And it's like, 'Well, f--k you! I can't do that. You're Eddie Van Halen! How the hell do I do that?!'"

Wolfie's debut album, Mammoth WVH, arrives June 11. The album's sixth single, "Mammoth," dropped on Friday.

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