Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen is working to complete a new album built from unreleased and unfinished material left behind by the late guitar legend Eddie Van Halen. To help bring these tracks to life, Alex has enlisted Steve Lukather to collaborate on fleshing out the songs, ensuring the album meets the standards the band expects.
Speaking with Kazagastão, Alex explained:
“Ed and I had a lot of stuff that we made, musically, that we never let go. 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.”
Alex also clarified that most of the instrumentation is already complete:
“…These are recordings that were going to be the next Van Halen record, and that were stopped because Ed didn’t live that long… The drums are already recorded. The drums, the guitar, and the bass are already in there. What we didn’t have is a vocalist, and obviously the subtleties and the glue — we call it the glue or the spackle.”
Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen has handled the majority of the bass tracks, but a lead singer has yet to be finalized. Alex noted:
“One of the singers who we really, really, really wanted for the new stuff was Paul Rodgers… but he can’t do it anymore. I respect that. I’m saddened and disappointed, but you know, that’s life… He knows he can’t do it — which is better than saying, ‘Yeah, I can do it,’ and then not being able to.”
The search for a vocalist is ongoing, and one candidate making headlines is Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who responded to the news on social media:
“Let’s go!! I’m ready.”
Durst’s potential involvement comes with a notorious history. In the early 2000s, Eddie Van Halen confronted Durst at his Beverly Hills home in a widely recounted incident. Per Andrew Bennett’s 2020 book Eruption In The Canyon: 212 Days and Nights with the Genius of Eddie Van Halen:
“Eddie once bought an assault vehicle from a military auction… He drove that vehicle through L.A., into Beverly Hills, parked it on the front lawn where Limp Bizkit was rehearsing… He got out shirtless, hair in a Samurai bun, jeans held up with a strand of rope, combat boots held together by duct tape, and a gun in his hand.”
Bennett further recalled:
“That asshole answered the door. I put my gun to that stupid fucking red hat of his, and I said, ‘Where’s my shit, motherfucker?’ That guy just turned to one of his employees and starts yelling at him to grab my stuff… Eddie stood on the front lawn in broad daylight, smoking a cigarette while holding a gun on Fred Durst as he went back and forth lugging amps and guitars.”
Despite the infamous feud, Durst seems eager to step into uncharted territory with V
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