“He says, ‘Hey Mike, come over about 1:30.’ And I thought, ‘Well, that’s going to work for me, a little lunch.’ Eddie says: ‘a.m.’”: Mike Rutherford reveals his secret studio sessions with Eddie Van Halen – and sheds light on their unreleased songs

Left-Mike Rutherford of the group Genesis performs onstage at the Poplar Creek Music Theater, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, October 2, 1982; Right-Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen performing at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 30, 1984.

Genesis co-founder and Mike + the Mechanics' Mike Rutherford has revealed that he owns a tape of songs he recorded with Eddie Van Halen back in the mid-1980s. Reflecting on this perhaps unlikely collaboration, Rutherford discusses his relationship with Van Halen and sheds light on how these recordings – never released publicly – came to be.

"I think Eddie heard a song from my second solo album [1982’s Acting Very Strange], which I sang – God knows how I thought of this! – and he rang me up and said, ‘Will you do some writing?’ I mean, my voice for God’s sake!” he says on My Planet Rocks.