Alex Van Halen, a new album with Steve Lukather of Toto

Recently hosted by Iron Maiden’s Nicko McBrain on the “Metal Sticks” podcast, Alex Van Halen revealed that he is on the verge of starting work on a new album with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather. During the interview, the drummer and brother of the late Eddie Van Halen, with whom he founded Van Halen, said:

“I’m getting ready to make this record with Lukather and a couple of other people. It sounds exciting.”

The statement from Alex Van Halen, who in 2024 published his autobiography “Brothers” and an unreleased song recorded with his brother Eddie, comes after last March Lukather had denied rumors according to which he would play guitar on a new album by the “Jump” band. News came from the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that Alex would be working on a collection of unreleased and unfinished Van Halen recordings, with the help of Toto’s guitarist to complete them.

In an article taken from “Guitar World”, the drummer declared about the project: “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and often worked together. There is no one who can go through this process with me better than him.” Apparently surprised by Alex’s words, Lukather is quoted in the same article as replying: “Did Alex say that? Oh, so the news is true. Ed, Alex and I have been very close for years. It’s true that we worked on it together.” Steve later shared a message on Instagram to clarify his rumored involvement in a new Van Halen album, writing: “For the record: Ever since Alex Van Halen implied that we would be working together, I believe there has been a huge misunderstanding. I will NEVER play a single guitar note on a VH song. Alex asked me to help him go through a huge amount of unfinished recordings of him and Ed as they wrote and recorded material that has never seen the light of day. At the moment this is The fact that anyone would even think for a second that I could play on it is ridiculous. I have too much love and respect for it all and I don’t sound like Ed at all. More of a co-producer role or something. I’m still honored that Al asked me.”