Alex Van Halen has confirmed work on a new album of unheard Eddie Van Halen material for the first time. He’d previously mentioned a collaboration with Steve Lukather, but didn’t define the nature of the project.
“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,” Van Halen said during an interview with the YouTube channel KazaGastao from Brazil, Consequence reports.
In the subtitled interview below, Van Halen first explains why fans haven’t heard these songs more than five years after his brother’s death.
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“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,” Van Halen said. “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.”
They’re building on a foundation of “recordings that were going to be the next [Van Halen] record, and that were stopped because [Eddie Van Halen] didn’t live that long,” Van Halen said. “The drums are already recorded. The drums, the guitar and the bass are already in there.” He confirmed that Wolfgang Van Halen handled the bass parts.
Eddie Van Halen, right, with original Van Halen members Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth. (Koh Hasebi, Getty Images)
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Van Halen praised longtime Toto leader Steve Lukather’s ability to “play anything,” which provides “all the connective tissues” on the music side. He’s still searching for a singer, however, after Paul Rodgers declined. The longtime Free and Bad Company frontman has had his own health issues.
“What we didn’t have is a vocalist, and obviously the subtleties and the glue — we call it the glue or the spackle,” Van Halen said. “Luke and I are looking for somebody right now.” Previous Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and Gary Cherone were unmentioned.
READ MORE: Ranking Every Van Halen Album
For Van Halen, “music is not so much about music as it is about people having a shared experience. I’m 72. We gotta find somebody in that age group who was exposed to the same musical experience that we have. Otherwise, it doesn’t have the depth.”
Van Halen noted that Robert Plant would be a great fit, but the former Led Zeppelin frontman is touring a new record right now. “He would’ve been an ideal choice, but nothing is etched in stone,” Van Halen said. “And I really believe that the universe will work something out to where this project will come out the best it can possibly be. We have no other intent other than to have it come to fruition.”
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