17 November 2020
Newsdesk
Eddie Van Halen's son has publicly thanked the German doctors who treated his dad's cancer, because they gave him three more years with the guitar great.
Wolfgang Van Halen revealed American doctors gave his father six weeks to live after he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer back in 2017, but experts in Europe were a lot more hopeful.
"Whatever the f**k they do over there, it's amazing because I got three more years with him," the 29-year-old musician told satellite radio host Howard Stern during an interview on Monday.
"I was with him every step of the way. Every second," he added.
The Van Halen guitarist died on 6 October, following a decade-long battle with cancer that spread to his lungs and brain, and his son told Stern he's still struggling with his dad's death.
"I'm awful," he said, "It's terrible. Every day, man. Some days are better than others."
Explaining: "The pain is still there always, but you just kind of figure out how to carry it a little better as time goes on," Wolfgang conceded: "But it's always gonna hurt... We had such a close connection and now, for the rest of my life, there's no way I'll never be able to think about him no matter what I do, which is good but also hurts a lot."
Wolfgang used the interview with Stern to ask for Van Halen fans' patience, insisting there will be a tribute concert and the possible release of lost music by his father - but he'd like to take time to grieve the loss of his dad first.
"(There's) a s**t ton of tapes that will take a very, very long time to go through," he explained, referring to all the tracks in Eddie's music vault. "We want to do it right, whenever the time is, but it would be a little shameless to do it right now," he remarked, lamenting: "I don't have a dad anymore and I'm coming to terms with that."
