Alex Van Halen Confirms Steve Lukather's Involvement for New Music

JAKARTA - Drummer and founder of the band Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, brought a surprise news for rock music lovers around the world.

In his appearance in the latest episode of the Metal Sticks podcast hosted by Nicko McBrain, Alex revealed that he was preparing a new recording project.

Not to mention, he collaborated with guitarist and Toto frontman Steve Lukather to collaborate on his recording.

"I'm getting ready to work on this record with Lukather and a few others. This should be something interesting," said Alex Van Halen.

However, until now there is no certainty whether the project will be a new album under the Van Halen banner or just a side project.

As is known, Alex has not released a studio album since "A Different Kind Of Truth" (2012) and has been practically vacuum after the death of Eddie Van Halen in 2020.

This collaboration seems to strengthen the report from the Dutch media, De Telegraaf, which had mentioned that Alex was combing through Van Halen's song collection that had not been completed with Lukather.

Alex emphasized that emotional closeness was the main reason for the selection of Lukather in this sensitive project.

"Eddie and Steve Lukather are very good friends and they often work together. There is no one else who can go through this process with me as well as he can," Alex said in an interview, quoted by Guitar World.

Responding to the statement, Lukather confirmed the truth of the news. "Did Alex say that? Oh, then the news is true. Ed, Alex, and I have been very close for years. It's true we worked on it together," said Lukather.

The potential for this new material is huge considering Alex once revealed that there was still enough stock of musical material to make three or four Van Halen albums from the band's secret archives.

Alex once said that there were many quality materials that had been neglected when they were productive in the past. He didn't want to rush into releasing the material because he wanted to make sure the result was perfect as a last tribute to his brother.

Previously in 2024, Alex had released a song titled "Unfinished" lasting six minutes, which was the last work he wrote with Eddie, as part of the launch of his memoir book titled Brothers.

On the other hand, this ambitious project is running amid tensions in the relationship between Alex and former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar, who claims to have not communicated with the drummer for more than two decades.