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ALEX Van Halen has done another rare interview – and he’s confirmed the album he’s working on with Steve Lukather will include material unfinished by Eddie Van Halen. They are looking for a vocalist after Paul Rodgers told them he was no longer capable of filling the role.
Drummer Alex previously confirmed he was working with guitarist Lukather on a project, leading to speculation about how much of it would draw from music in the mythical family vaults at Eddie’s 5150 studios.
“Ed and I had a lot of stuff that we made, that we made musically that we never let go,” Alex told Brazilian platform KazaGastão
“Many people have asked, ‘what about releasing unreleased stuff?’ Well, we’re not gonna release it in its embryonic form because it wouldn’t make any sense.
“But I’ve been fortunate enough to have Steve Lukather, who was a good friend of Ed’s, and we’re working on putting a record together.
“But it has to be of the quality and the level of where we left it. Not just to say, ‘Hey, here’s some music that we made. If you like it, that’s great’.’ No. It has to be the quality that we expect.”
Alex said of Lukather’s role in the project: “He can facilitate things that would’ve taken me 10 times as long. And I love the guy. We’ve known him for years.”
Crucially, he described the project as “recordings that were going to be the next (Van Halen) record, and that were stopped because he didn’t live that long.
“The drums are already recorded. The drums, the guitar and the bass are already in there.” Bass, says was handled by Wolfgang Van Halen.
On vocals, Alex said: “We originally had plans to — I think I can probably say without talking outta school, one of the singers who we really, really, really wanted to use for the new stuff was (Bad Company’s) Paul Rodgers.
“And he has a relationship with Luke and we grew up onFree and all that, but he can’t do it anymore. And it was very difficult for him to bring himself to say, ‘No, I can’t. Count me out.’ I respect that.
“I’m saddened and disappointed, but you know, that’s life… He knows he can’t do it — which I think is better than saying, ‘Yeah, I can do it,’ and then not be able to do it.”
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