In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Alex Van Halen shared who he plans to replace David Lee Roth with for the Eddie tribute.
“They’re all little pieces,” the drummer said of unreleased Van Halen music. “A bunch of licks don’t make a song.”
Van Halen mentioned that he contacted OpenAI to see if they could study the way Eddie played to create new guitar solos. In another part of the interview, Alex explained that a planned 2022 tour with guitarist Joe Satriani fell through because Roth wouldn’t agree to dedicate part of the show to a tribute for Eddie.
Because of the issues with Roth, Alex said he hopes to bring in former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant to sing on new music, even though they haven’t talked since 1993.
The rocker explained, “Ideally, it’d be Robert Plant. You’re gonna think I’m out of my f*cking mind, but when conditions are right, things will manifest.”
In the same chat with Rolling Stone, Alex also said he was angry with DLR for disrespecting Eddie. “The thing that broke the camel’s back, and I can be honest about this now, was I said, ‘Dave, at some point, we have to have a very overt — not a bowing — but an acknowledgment of Ed in the gig. If you look at how Queen does it, they show old footage,’” the drummer revealed.
He continued his words, “And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave f*ckin’ popped a fuse.… The vitriol that came out was unbelievable. I’m from the street. You talk to me like that, motherf*cker, I’m gonna beat your f*cking brains out. You got it?’”
“And I mean that. And that’s how it ended. It’s just, my God. It’s like I didn’t know him anymore. I have nothing but the utmost respect for his work ethic and all that. But, Dave, you gotta work as a community, motherf*cker. It’s not you alone anymore,” Alex shared.
After his brother Eddie died in 2020, Alex tried to plan a tour with Roth, but it didn’t happen. The drummer also shared that he couldn’t have toured because of a back injury in 2022 that left him unable to move for a year.