Alex Van Halen has announced that he and Steve Lukather, the star from Toto, are set to begin working on a new album together.

“I’m getting ready to do this record with Lukather and a couple of other people,” Van Halen shared with longtime Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain during the Metal Sticks podcast. “It should be exciting.”

Van Halen, a legendary drummer, did not delve deeper into the specifics of the record and mentioned that Lukather, known for his guitar work with Toto and numerous studio sessions, had not committed to any particular role in the project.

However, it is possible that Van Halen is referring to his plans to finalize unreleased music featuring himself and his brother, the late Eddie Van Halen, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 65. Both he and Lukather have discussed this possibility in recent years.

In November 2024, Van Halen revealed that there were “three or four” albums’ worth of unheard music in the brothers’ vault. “They will stay there until we figure out how and why and what to do with them,” he told Chris Jericho. “And again, you have to remember, it has to be on the level of where Ed and I used to play. We’re not just gonna shovel it in. We have access to some of the greatest musicians on the planet, and a lot of them are more than willing to take a chance on some of the stuff.”

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In early 2025, Van Halen reportedly told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he had enlisted Lukather’s help to complete some of that unreleased music, stating, “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together. There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can.”

Lukather quickly clarified his involvement in such a collaboration, describing his role as more akin to a co-producer and asserting that he would “not ever” play a note of guitar on a Van Halen song.

“Al asked me to help him go through [sic] a ton of unfinished recordings of Al and Ed writing and recording that never saw the light of day,” Lukather explained. “As of now that’s all I got. The fact that ANYONE would think for even a second that I would play anything on this is ridiculous. I have too much love and respect for that and I play nothing like Ed.”

This aligns with the open-ended way Van Halen describes Lukather’s role in the new project during the recent Metal Sticks interview. “We have a long history together. …When you’re in, I don’t want to use the word business, but if you’re in this line of work… it goes beyond a superficial contract and ‘I want you to do this and do that.’ We do it because we like something or we want to do it because it’s creative. …. The moment you get into contracts that are very specific about what your role in the project is, it falls apart.”