Steve Vai has revealed he’s heard a raft of unreleased Van Halen material and is in high hopes for the band’s highly anticipated forthcoming release, which will revive some of Eddie Van Halen's older demos.
Alex Van Halen recently caused a stir when he revealed that he and Steve Lukather were working on a posthumous Van Halen album using material the band recorded before Eddie's passing, intended as a successor to 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth.
The two rock heavyweights have a wealth of ideas to work with. And it turns out Vai has heard some of it.
“I was up at Edward’s house once, in his studio,” Vai tells Guitar Player in a new interview. “He had a room filled with tapes, and he was pulling them out, and we were listening. He would just sit, record, and play.
“I’ll tell you, nobody plays like they do when they’re sitting in their room alone,” he continues. “It was a whole library of tapes, and it was such great stuff.”
He adds that he asked Eddie about the prospect of turning his swathe of riffs and ideas into a solo album. The late virtuoso said that “he always felt that Van Halen was his solo records”.
In turn, Vai has given his blessing to the Lukather-guided project. Lukather is, he says, “the best guy to help with this” given how close Eddie and Lukather were.
However, after early rumors got out of hand, Lukather was quick to clarify his role in the album shortly after its announcement, explaining that he won’t play a single note on it after fans reacted to the news.
While details of the record remain scarce, we do know that Bad Company vocalist and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Rodgers turned down the opportunity to front it.
Former bassist Michael Anthony, meanwhile, who was replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen in the band’s latter years, has his own thoughts on how the record should be released, and such a move would render the need for a vocalist redundant.
Vai, of course, has his own chapter in the band's history, having been chosen by Diamond Dave for his solo band. He says he got the gig with a little help from Billy Sheehan.
