There have been rumors that Alex Van Halen had been secretly working with Steve Lukather. The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that Alex Van Halen has teamed up with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather to finish unreleased Van Halen material left behind by Eddie Van Halen before his passing in 2020.
Alex allegedly told the magazine: ‘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 himself was confronted with the news, and he supposedly responded, ‘Did Alex say that? Oh, in that case, the news is true.'”
Steve Lukather has now posted his thoughts on Instagram. He wrote: “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 Van Halen song ever!.
Al asked me to help him go through 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 …”
In 2012, Van Halen’s last studio album was released, entitled A different kind of truth. On that record, the Van Halen brothers worked with original singer David Lee Roth for the first time in 28 years. It is not yet known when the new work will be released.
For those who don’t know, Lukather and Eddie had a deep musical bond that spanned decades. They jammed together, worked on projects behind the scenes, and shared a mutual respect that few musicians ever get to experience. Lukather has often spoken about how much Eddie influenced his playing.
In 2022, Steve Lukather reminisced the true story of how he and Eddie Van Halen recorded “Beat It” for Michael Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones.
