After hanging out at rock festivals last year and playing together in September in South Carolina, Los Angeles-based rock bands Dirty Honey and Mammoth WVH decided to join forces in 2022 for the co-headlining Young Guns Tour.

“We had such a good time; this tour just seemed like an inevitability,” Mammoth WVH frontman Wolfgang Van Halen said during a recent video interview from his home in Los Angeles. Dirty Honey’s Marc LaBelle, who was in his hotel room in New York City, was also on the call.

Though the tour was initially postponed due to a spike in COVID-19 cases earlier in the year, the Young Guns Tour is now scheduled to hit House of Blues in San Diego on March 1, The Wiltern in Los Angeles March 2 and Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio on March 5.

LaBelle said there was an instant connection between him and Van Halen, son of late Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli. The pair are both hockey fans and have similar tastes in music. With both bands dropping their self-titled debut albums last year, it seemed like a good time to get out on the road.

Another reason is to disprove those naysayers who claim that rock is dead.

“They’re wrong,” Van Halen said with a laugh. “They just don’t know where to find it. I think that’s sort of the mission statement of the Young Guns Tour, is to prove that is very much a false statement.”

“Some of the biggest festivals around these days are rock festivals,” LaBelle added. “So it’s very much alive and we’re trying to be the next generation of that.”

Aside from their own music, Van Halen and LaBelle said rock fans should check out artists like Ayron Jones, Joyous Wolf, Badflower and The Marcus King Band. They’ve also toured with and learned from bands like The Black Crowes, The Who and Guns N’ Roses.  As well, Van Halen played bass in Van Halen from 2006 until his father’s passing in 2020 at the age of 65.

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“You learn through experience. I never could have expected to be playing at Fenway Park the first time I went out on tour with my band. That’s an insane thing to be a part of and the fact that [Guns N’ Roses] brought us on that tour was amazingly kind of them to do,” Van Halen said.

“[The Black Crowes’] Chris Robinson was very forward in his approach in giving me some of his wisdom,” LaBelle said, ticking off tips such as traveling, taking chances and ignoring your manager sometimes, among them. “All the things my manager wouldn’t like to hear. Part of him was probably joking around, but he’s somebody that’s still good even today and you take notice of what he’s doing.

“He does live a full life, which I appreciate, but you also see him taking care of his voice and getting sleep so he’s ready to go at showtime, come hell or high water. As an artist, that’s what I aspire to be – somebody that’s great 30 years from now and not just a flash in the pan.”

So far, 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for both bands. Dirty Honey began the new year by being selected to kick off the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic by covering Prince & The Revolution’s “Let’s Go Crazy” and playing the tune live on a frozen lake in Minnesota.

“Covering a Prince song in Minnesota is definitely a tall task, but I thought we did an interesting take on it and that’s what you ultimately want to do with a cover song,” LaBelle said. “Do something unique.”

Van Halen is up for his very first Grammy Award this year in the best rock song category for “Distance,” a tribute he wrote for his father. The Grammys will take place April 3 in Las Vegas.

“That is really special and full circle in a way considering my father got his first Grammy nomination when he was 30 and now so have I,” he said. “I think that’s cool. I’m a sentimental guy, so that lining up is a cool thing.”

Young Guns Tour with Dirty Honey & Mammoth WVH

When: 7 p.m. March 2

Where: The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

Tickets: $29.50-$195 at LiveNation.com

Also: 7 p.m. March 1 at House of Blues, San Diego. Tickets are $29-$70 at LiveNation.com; 8 p.m. March 5 at Fantasy Casino, Indio. Tickets are $29-$49 at fantasyspringsresort.com.