There’s a pretty remarkable rumor that says a new Van Halen album is in the works, with Alex Van Halen reaching out to Steve Lukather of Toto to fill in for the late Eddie Van Halen on electric guitar.

After Eddie’s death on October 6th, 2020, the Van Halen story has been one of tribute tours that have never really gotten off the ground. So, there’s a lot of fan excitement with the reality in which we might hear a new album from the band.

Lukather and Eddie were close friends. Both famously played on Michael Jackson’s Beat It, a groundbreaking moment in pop history.

Alex Van Halen says there’s a wealth of unfinished song ideas and archive material in the Van Halen vault that could potentially be used for the new album. “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together,” says Van Halen. “There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can.”

He also expressed interest in using generative AI to analyze his brother’s ideas and synthesize new material, with Robert Plant potentially being considered to sing on the tracks.

They’re all little pieces,” said Alex. “A bunch of licks don’t make a song.” But to use AI? That’s a slippery slope in my humble opinion.