Alex Van Halen has revealed that is about to begin work on a new album  with TOTO guitarist Steve Lukather. “I’m getting ready to do this record with Lukather and a couple of other people,” the VAN HALEN drummer told IRON MAIDEN‘s Nicko McBrain on the “Metal Sticks” podcast. “It should be exciting.”

Last March, Lukather shot down reports that he would play guitar on a new VAN HALEN album.

De Telegraaf, the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper, reported that Alex was working on a collection of previously unreleased, unfinished VAN HALEN recordings, with Lukather helping him to complete it. The VAN HALEN drummer said of the project in a paywalled article (via Guitar World): “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, seemingly surprised about Alex‘s comment, is quoted in the same article as responding: “Did Alex say that? Oh, in that case the news is true. Ed, Alex and I were very close for years. It is true that we worked on it together.”

On March 15, 2025, Lukather took to his Instagram to clarify his possible involvement in a new VAN HALEN album, saying: “For the record: Ever since Alex Van Halen dropped some we were gonna work together I think there is a huge misunderstanding.

“I will NOT EVER play a guitar note on a VH song ever!.

“Al asked me to help him go thru a ton of unfinished recordings of Al and Ed writing and recording that never saw the light of day. As of now thats 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.. more as a co-producer or something. I am honored Al would ask me though.

“Lets see …”

Alex had previously said that there was enough VAN HALEN material in the vaults for another “three or four records”. Speaking on an episode of Chris Jericho‘s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Eddie‘s brother said: “I’ve talked about it loosely, and I am rather superstitious, but I can say a couple of things that I’ve mentioned before. We’re gonna go through the ‘vault’ and go through some of the musical ideas that were there.”

He added: “There was some good stuff in there. And you have to remember, when in the thick of it, sometimes the really great stuff kind of passes you by. And it’s not until you revisit it going, ‘Whoa, I forgot about that. This kicks ass.’ But that takes time. And you wanna do it right. I wanna do it right.”

Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather had collaborated on several projects in the past, including Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It”, on which Lukather played the main riff and Van Halen played the solo. Eddie also played bass on Lukather‘s debut solo album and made a guest appearance on Steve‘s 2003 Christmas LP “Santamental”.

Back in November 2020, a little over a month after Eddie‘s death, Lukather reflected on his friend’s passing, telling Metal Master Kingdom: “It’s hard for me, man, ’cause the wound is still very deep. I’m very honored to have been Ed‘s friend — really a friend; not just a guitar buddy who had a beer with him once. There is 40-plus years with him, Al and I.

“I know all the guys (in VAN HALEN). I love all the guys. I’m Switzerland (when it comes to their relationships with each other). I was just on Sammy‘s (Hagar) show. He was beautiful to me. Mike‘s (Anthony) always nice to me. The brothers (Ed and Al) and I have always stayed very close. I’ve been in touch with Al more than anybody. And Janie (Eddie‘s widow) sent me some wonderful pictures of Ed and I when we were younger that she found somewhere. And I’ve been in touch — I talked to Wolf (Eddie‘s son) once. I’m gonna leave him alone. He’s got his mom.

“This is a hole in my heart that won’t go away. He was a real friend of mine, okay? We didn’t get together and talk about guitars and stuff unless we wanted to play each other something new or brag about our kids. And really, we spent the last half of our relationship bragging about each other’s sons, ’cause they both play. We always had that in common — the sons and the guitar. We have a lot in common off the gig that has nothing to do with music.

“I loved the man. There’s nothing to argue about how great he was as a musician. I don’t have to. Who’s gonna argue? He was one of the greats to ever pick up rock and roll guitar — he changed everything. And he was my friend. And I miss my friend more than anything. I miss the roar of one of his vehicles scaring the fuck out of my neighbors. And the way he laughed, and the way he fucking hugged me whenever he came by…

“The last thing I have in my phone is just a heart that he sent me.

“It’s hard for me to talk about because it’s an open wound. But I imagine how his family (feels). My heart goes out to everybody in the Van Halen family.”

Eddie died on October 6, 2020 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California at the age of 65.

During a new appearance on “Talk Is Jericho”, the podcast hosted by FOZZY frontman and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho, VAN HALEN drummer Alex Van Halen spoke about his decision to write his memoir, “Brothers”, which has been described as a love letter to his younger brother, while still mourning Eddie Van Halen‘s untimely death. Alex said: “Ed and I were tight. We worked together, we played together, we did whatever. But when he was near the end of his life, because of COVID it was very difficult to visit him in person and to see him. There was always either a glass barrier or a plastic something surrounding him. The times that we could actually touch him were few and far between. And that really put everything in a strange kind of — I can’t explain it, but it didn’t feel right. So we really had no closure, in that sense, and everything was hurried near the end, again, because of the COVID issue. We didn’t really have a ceremony afterwards. He was cremated and his ashes were spread. This is my way of saying goodbye to him. And whatever you believe in terms of spiritual pursuits and all that, I think he’s still here, he’s still here with us in one way, shape or form — not to the point where he’s not allowed to go where he really wants to go. (Laughs) They call it a tether; you don’t wanna tether him to this dimension. So, Ed, whatever you wanna do is cool. We love you. And I just wanted to say that to the point of infinitum, whatever the expression is.”

Alex continued: “It’s hard to describe what it’s like to not have someone in your life that has been there for 65 years. That’s a long, long time, and it wasn’t just a regular — and I’m not giving other people a hard time in terms of ‘my relationship was stronger than yours’. That’s not the point. It’s just that when you have something that’s taken out of your life after 65 years, it’s difficult. And I’m certainly not alone. I’m not saying I’m special or I should get a medal — no, it happens to a lot of different people. And I think one of the side effects of this book has been a lot of people have contacted me and said, ‘Reading this book has really given me a different way of looking at the parting with people who I loved.’ And I know that grief can be a common denominator, if you will, and that’s not my preference — my preference is the happier times — but with the good comes the bad. And everybody’s gonna go through it.”

Regarding the possibility of previously unreleased Eddie Van Halen music eventually seeing the light of day, Alex said: “I’ve talked about it loosely, and I am rather superstitious, but I can say a couple of things that I’ve mentioned before. We’re gonna go through the, quote-unquote, vault and go through some of the musical ideas that were there. On the one end of the spectrum is the fact that little licks don’t make a song. On the other end of the spectrum, some of those licks are so unbelievably powerful, it’s too bad that they ended up in the back of the vault, rather than being records.

“There are so many different variables in a band like ours,” Alex explained. “We don’t just walk in the studio and plan, ‘Let’s make a record,’ although we have done that to some degree. But it’s not a mechanical process for us. We go in and we play and see what happens, listen to it, invite a couple of people and then see what happens with that. And then you listen and you evaluate. If the next day, when you come in and listen to it, if it doesn’t kick you in the face like it did the first time, then maybe you should move on and do something else. Don’t hold on to an old idea just because it’s there. No. That’s not how we did it. Having said that, there were also a lot of bad ideas. (Laughs) That’s always the risk you run, but if you don’t do that, you will become — it’ll become inert. It’s called inertia, or whatever — entropy. Things will fall off and then you become less and less creative. And the other aspect of all of that is that you are in an open marketplace where you are being judged, and if you don’t do well in the marketplace, people are gonna go, ‘Maybe it’s time to do something else.’ And that is a real issue. But now that Ed‘s gone, none of those things are really valid because all I have, and Wolf (Eddie‘s son and VAN HALEN bassist) has, is all the recordings in the vault. And they will stay there until we figure out how and why and what to do with them. And again, you have to remember, it has to be on the level of where Ed and I, where we 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 ’em are more than willing to take a chance on some of the stuff.”

When Jericho noted that it sounds like Alex has more than just one or two demos that he could elaborate on and release to the public, the drummer said: “Oh, yeah. Probably three or four records, if not more. I’m serious. There was some good stuff, some good stuff in there. And you have to remember, when in the thick of it, sometimes the really great stuff kind of passes you by. And it’s not until you revisit it going, ‘Whoa, I forgot about that. This kicks ass.’ But that takes time. And you wanna do it right. I wanna do it right.”

Alex also talked about the fact that the audiobook version of “Brothers” contains a previously unreleased song composed by Alex and his brother. Titled “Unfinished”, it is the last piece of music they wrote together and can be heard as Alex narrates his story.

“I don’t wanna use the word ‘spiritual’, but there is a connection with… Ed and I were very much a product of how our dad saw the world, and one of his favorite pieces of music was a song called ‘Unfinished’ by Franz Schubert,” Alex said. “Actually, it wasn’t until I’d done this that I went back and looked at it. It turns out he had a lot of pieces that were unfinished. (Laughs) That seemed to be one of his major traits. So we had this song that was not completely finished yet. It was one of my most memorable songs that was constantly playing in the house. So I thought it was kind of a sign from some different dimension: ‘do this’. And as you can tell, I go off on a tangent that may or may not even be real, but I believe that stuff, man. There are a lot of things in this world that we do not know. There’s no explanation for them. All you have to do is just sit down, slow down and listen, which is easier said than done. (Laughs)”