“There is no-one who can do this process with me as well as he can”: Alex Van Halen says a new Van Halen album is in the works – and he’s recruited Steve Lukather to help him complete it

If extraordinary reports coming out of the Netherlands are to be believed, Alex Van Halen is working on a new Van Halen album – and Steve Lukather has been recruited to help him complete it.

The Van Halen band name has been the subject of much speculation over the past few years, from talk of the ill-fated tribute tour with Jason Newsted and Joe Satriani that never quite worked out, all the way to Sammy Hagar’s recent Best Of All Worlds tour, which many considered to be the next best thing.

An actual new Van Halen album, on the other hand, was never really considered to be a likely possibility, even if there has been concrete confirmation – most notably from Michael Anthony – that an archive of unreleased, unfinished Van Halen does indeed exist.

The general feeling was, though, that this would never see the light of day, and as such, any talk of a 13th Van Halen studio album – especially one without Eddie himself – was futile.

However, it seems as though a new Van Halen record is exactly what we’ll be getting, and the band’s first album since 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth is on the way courtesy of Alex Van Halen and the Toto guitar great, who may or may not be playing electric guitar in place of Eddie Van Halen.

Reports of the pair’s collaboration emerged in the Dutch press earlier this week, with De Telegraf [paywalled] quoting Alex Van Halen as saying, “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.”

(Image credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)Lukather, for his part, told De Telegraf: “Did Alex say that? Oh, in that case the news is true,” said Lukather. “Ed, Alex and I were very close for years. It is true that we worked on it together.”

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Lukather’s involvement in the project makes sense, and his long-standing connection to the Van Halen name makes him an ideal candidate for the job.

After all, he was close to both Van Halen brothers, and worked with Eddie on Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Eddie also played bass on Lukather’s solo debut record, and helped cut his 2003 Christmas album, Santamental. The pair also jammed onstage on numerous occasions over the years – and even had a secret supergroup.

In other words, it’s no surprise that Alex Van Halen tapped Lukather for the project, and now all that remains is to ask, what exactly will this new album sound like, and who else will feature?

Will Alex Van Halen and Steve Lukather team up with any former vocalists? Will bassist Anthony be brought onboard?

Alex has made no secret of his desire to revive old Van Halen parts, and even revealed he’d contacted OpenAI about the possibility of rounding out some of Van Halen’s old guitar demos.

Could this new album finally bring those to light, and will it tap into the never-before-heard archive of Van Halen material? Only time will tell.