Toto guitarist Steve Lukather has shared new details regarding his involvement in a highly anticipated archival project helmed by Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen. The upcoming album will feature previously unreleased and unfinished recordings rescued from the Van Halen vault, focusing entirely on honoring the musical legacy of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who passed away in 2020.
In a new interview with Andrew Daly of Guitar Player magazine, Steve Lukather clarified that his role on the record is strictly behind the scenes. Despite his own status as a guitar virtuoso, he will not be performing any instrumentation on the tracks, choosing instead to serve as a co-producer and trusted advisor for Alex Van Halen.
“First off, Eddie played some of the most amazing s**t I’ve ever heard. And it’s not pieces on the floor that have to be snapped back together and try to Mickey Mouse something together that might be sellable. These are f**king finished tracks with Ed and Al, and Ed’s playing bass on a lot of it. That’s all I can say right now because it’s a much bigger picture, and it’s Alex’s story to tell,” Steve said.
“I am there 100 percent to be [Alex‘s] co-producer and help him through the technical aspects,” Lukather explained. “I’m not gonna play. There’s not gonna be any Lukather or Toto fingerprints on a Van Halen thing. I can f**king promise you that. I’m there to be Al‘s wingman, and go, ‘How can I help you do this?’ I’m there to go, ‘Want me to help you do some vocals? How do we do these mixes?’ It’s about making sure that there’s quality control from somebody he trusts.”
Addressing potential skepticism from fans who might worry about a posthumous cash-grab, Steve Lukather fiercely defended the caliber of the unreleased material left behind by Eddie Van Halen. He revealed that the tracks originally remained in the vault simply because the band found them difficult to write lyrics over at the time.
“I’m telling you, this is not throwaway s**t. When I heard them, I said to Al, ‘How f**king come you didn’t use these?’ And the answer was because nobody could write to it. So if you think this is a bunch of throwaway crap that we’re trying to Mickey Mouse together to suck the dollar out of poor, unsuspecting Van Halen fans, it’s not.”
Explaining that he has no ulterior motives, he added: “This is not about money. This is about love of the guys and trying to help. I’m not gonna be involved in an obvious way. So, I wish people would get the f**k off my back!”
In a recent conversation with Gastão Moreira of Brazil’s “Kazagastão“, Alex Van Halen shed light about the ongoing project.
Setting the record straight on the quality and intention behind the release, Alex stated at the time:
“Ed and I had a lot of stuff that we made, 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. Not just to say, ‘Hey, here’s some music that we made. If you like it, that’s great.’ No. It has to be the quality that we expect.”
When asked how Lukather fits into the puzzle of completing these archival tracks, Alex praised the guitarist’s musical intuition and ability to seamlessly tie the elements together:
“I call Lukather Luke affectionately. He is the connective tissue. Luke can play anything… But because of this talent that kind of blends in with everything, he doesn’t get the recognition that I think he deserves. And I may be wrong. Maybe he is recognized the world over. He should be, because I can’t play guitar. And I can work things out on a keyboard, but it takes me too long to figure it out. And by that time, the moment is gone. I went to Steve‘s house several times and we played a piece of music and he goes, ‘Yeah, I got it. That’s it. That’s all we need.’ Then he can do all the connective tissues. He knows where to put the solo, as far as structure and organ and structure and an organization. I have my opinions and he has his, and they are just opinions. So he can facilitate things that would’ve taken me 10 times as long. And I love the guy. We’ve known him for years.”
Alex also confirmed that the foundation of these songs was actually intended for the next Van Halen studio album before Eddie‘s passing. The core instrumentation, featuring Eddie‘s son, Wolfgang Van Halen, on bass, is largely intact:
“Well, 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…”
“Most of ’em is Wolf [Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie‘s son and former Van Halen bassist], because these are recordings that were made ready for the next record,” he told when asked who is playing the bass.
With the instrumental tracks largely secured, the massive hurdle remains finding the right singer. Alex revealed that they had initially approached Free and Bad Company legend Paul Rodgers, but health and vocal limitations prevented it from happening:
“We originally had plans to — I think I can probably say without talking outta school, one of the singers who we really, really, really wanted to use for the new stuff was Paul Rodgers, and he has a relationship with Luke and we grew up on Free and all that, but [Paul] can’t do it anymore. And it was very difficult for him to bring himself to say, ‘No, I can’t. Count me out.’ I respect that. I’m saddened and disappointed, but you know, that’s life… He knows he can’t do it — which I think is better than saying, ‘Yeah, I can do it,’ and then not be able to do it.”
The search for the right frontman continues. When the interviewer suggested Led Zeppelin‘s Robert Plant, Alex was open to the idea but noted the importance of finding someone from their specific era who understands the musical context.
“Yeah. Luke and I are looking for somebody right now”
“Music is not so much about music as it is about people having a shared experience. I’m 72. We gotta find somebody in that age group who was exposed to the same musical experience that we have. Otherwise, it doesn’t have the depth.”
“I can’t remember what the expression is, but there’s a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing that a cucumber is a vegetable. Wisdom is knowing where to put it. [Laughs]”
“Robert Plant is brilliant. But if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. And he’s out touring, doing his thing. He would’ve been an ideal choice. But nothing is etched in stone. And I really believe that the universe will work something out to where this project will come out the best it can possibly be. We have no other intent other than to have it come to fruition.”
Alex also briefly touched on “Unfinished“, the final piece of music he wrote with Eddie, which was recently released alongside his audiobook, “Brothers“:
“The feedback for that song was incredible. But there was no vocals on it and it was not completed. And that was the whole point… The lineage of how my brother and I did things was some of the stuff that our dad taught us were very deeply rooted, and one of his favorite songs was the ‘Unfinished’ by Schubert. And so this song was unfinished, so I figured we’d call it ‘Unfinished’ and then that’s it. We weren’t even aware that we were going to make this public at any point. This is just Ed and I working at the studio. Unbridled, unpressured, un-anything. And there are a couple of places, if you heard, where the needle goes right through the machine. [Laughs] I hope we didn’t blow up any speakers.”
Bad Company and Free frontman Paul Rodgers dismissed speculation about his health after news surfaced that he had been approached to provide vocals for a project being developed by Alex Van Halen alongside Steve Lukather.
On Saturday, February 21, Rodgers addressed the renewed concerns about his health by issuing the following statement on social media.
“To squash the rumours… My health is good. I feel fit and strong and I am rehearsing to perform March 2nd at the Adopt The Arts Sound And Vision Awards in Palm Springs.”
“Thanks to Van Halen for inviting me to work on a track with them, but I am in my acoustic, zen phase of life.”
