Alex Van Halen has revealed he’s working on a new recording project alongside longtime friend and Toto guitarist Steve Lukather.
Speaking on Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain’s Metal Sticks podcast, Alex shared that the project is now moving toward active development. “I’m getting ready to do this record with Lukather and a couple of other people,” he said. “It should be exciting.”
The comment immediately raised eyebrows, particularly given past reports and clarifications surrounding Lukather’s role in anything tied to Van Halen. Last year, Lukather publicly pushed back on speculation that he would play guitar on a new Van Halen album after a Dutch newspaper reported Alex was revisiting unfinished recordings from the band’s vault.
At the time, Alex explained that the material involved unreleased ideas he and Eddie Van Halen had worked on years earlier, and that Lukather was uniquely suited to help him navigate and complete the process. “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together,” Alex said. “There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can.”
Lukather later confirmed that the two had indeed been working together, though he stressed the nature of his involvement was being misunderstood. In March 2025, he addressed the rumours directly on Instagram, making it clear he would not be performing on any Van Halen recordings.
“For the record, I will not ever play a guitar note on a Van Halen song,” Lukather wrote. “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. That’s all I got.”
He added that his role was closer to that of a collaborator or co-producer, not a replacement for Eddie Van Halen. “I have too much love and respect for that,” he wrote. “I play nothing like Ed. I’m honored Al would ask me, though.”
After Eddie’s death in October 2020, Lukather spoke openly about the loss, describing a friendship that went far beyond music. “This is a hole in my heart that won’t go away,” he said at the time. “He wasn’t just a guitar buddy. He was my friend.”
Eddie Van Halen died on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65, following complications from cancer.
Look forward to seeing what Alex and Steve release! He ain’t no Eddie Van Halen, but Lukather is a monster player!
