Michael Anthony has weighed in on the developments surrounding a prospective new Van Halen record by suggesting the direction he thinks it should go in.
In March last year, Alex Van Halen announced out of nowhere that he was working with Steve Lukather on a new Van Halen record. Later, Luke asserted he’d never “play a guitar note on a VH song”, but it was confirmed the two were indeed working on Van Halen material together.
That material, it was recently revealed, was old demos that had been tracked before Eddie Van Halen passed away. In fact, Alex says the band had practically finished an album before the electric guitar legend died.
Lukather had been brought onboard to help piece the project together and, in another twist to the tale, Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers had been approached to sing on the record.
Rodgers, it’s since been revealed, turned down the approach, saying he was in his “acoustic, zen phase of life”.
For Anthony, though, that’s just as well. In his mind, the new Van Halen project should be kept instrumental – and leave the spotlight firmly on Eddie’s playing.
Speaking to WNCX (via Ultimate Classic Rock), the former Van Halen bassist offers, “The way I personally feel about it is, if they wanted to do it justice, [the best idea would be] to just finish it up as a great instrumental nod to Eddie [Van Halen].
“You know, because getting a new singer in there, we're not forming a new band, and then you've got to work on lyrics and all that stuff. And who knows when anything would be put out at that point.”
In Anthony’s mind, whatever unheard material that Eddie recorded before he passed away should be front and center on the new record. Having a new vocalist to go with it – and, by extension, another artistic vision in the mix – would simply detract the project from what it should be: a tribute to Van Halen’s guitar greatness.
It's unclear when this Van Halen record will be released, but by the sounds of it, Lukather and Van Halen are still busy working on it. In 2024, Alex releasedUnfinished – the last song he worked on with his brother.
