That would make way more sense. Anyone see the MUSICAL similarities:

John & Yoko
Paul & Linda
Eddie & Wolfgang

John & Yoko = FAIL, because Yoko insisted on being out front and singing.
Paul & Linda = WIN, because Linda was nice enough to play in the background buried in the mix
Eddie & Wolfgang = Jury's still out because I didn't go see them live. From what I hear, the kid can play, though.

And Eddie and Wolfgang also have in their favor that they're not married.

While I wish them much success on their latest album (CD), I hope after all this waiting & wondering it doesn't turn out like Guns n Roses last effort "Chinese Democracy". What a mamajor disappointment that was. VH at this point can not handle an average or sub par effort this time out. It must be good, damn good otherwise the few diehards left will abandon them. You can only milk your past and your reputation so long. The music landscape has dramatically changed since VH were on top of the world and not for the better. What was once "ROCK" is now "classic rock", most members of this group are doing greatest hits tours at this juncture. So much has changed since VH were considered the GODS of rock music. At least 2 things have to happen here, first the album (CD) must contain great songs from start to finish, no wimpy effortless songs at all, no "filler material". Second, assuming that they can succeed at #1, they will have to mount a successful country wide tour in order to support their new album. That means all members present and in good playing shape. DLR's voice must be in top form here, Eddie must keep his alcohol demons at bay. I saw this current line up several years ago on their last tour and they sounded great however, that was several years ago. Hopefully practice makes perfect here. But even if all these things do happen there is no guarantee todays rock stations will even play the new songs (as good as they might be) into rotation. So it will be up to the VH faithful to promote the new CD to their friends & other casual fans by word of mouth. A tall order to be sure but if anyone can pull this off its Van Halen. So go ahead boys and work out the kinks in the land down under. Just be sure that when you get ready to play & tour here stateside that you guys really "bring it". Nothing less will do!

I've come to the conclusion that GNR CD is a fine album if I think of it as an AXL Rose solo album.

A bad Van Halen album by this lineup couldn't possibly be worse than Van Halen III.

See the problem here is the DLR & VH have wasted a lot of years arguing & infighting and where has it gotten them? Assuming Dave & the band are truly serious about recording another album & touring, Dave's voice needs to be in top form otherwise he'll end up like Whitney Houston. He's that much older and even though the recording studios can make up for a lot of vocal discrepancies, signing night after night may not. I do hope DLR is doing everything in his power to ensure his voice is sounding as great as it can. But even if he's doing this and more it may not be enough to compensate for the fact that he's x amount of years older and as such his voice may be past its prime.
With Van Halen & David Lee Roth I keep coming back to an old phrase that says " I wish I knew then what I know now". All those wasted years of doing....nothing and having nothing to show for it, "YEA" nobody wins!

The album, when it comes out, will be a good album. It will be bought by the fans...it will most likely hit #1 because initial sales will boost it there quickly. It won't stay on the charts long...they will tour and play a few songs from the album, fill the rest of the show with the usual songs...and that will be it. Whether the band stays intact after that...who knows. My expectations are not very high at this point, being the tour ended in 2008 and it's almost 3 years later.

I still wish they'd bring Mikey back. Though he's probably better off in Chickenfoot with Sammy.

these days autotune can make a dead cat sound good. That's one of the biggest prblems with today's music BUSINESS, is that talent is no longer needed. You think Milli Vanilli was a scam? LOL!!!!!

With that said, DLR just doesn't seem to me like the type who'd want to use

Mike was a huge factor in the classic VH sound. In the end, EVH probably had a lot to do with the bass sound in the band anyway, so that probably won't change much. What I'm more worried about is the background vox and the input MA brought to complete the VH sound. It's a shame EVH has concocted this rift between the band and Anthony to get his son in the band. MA was nothing but a complete ambassador for the group in all the years they were idle.

If Eddie wants to do something with his son, that's fantastic. There are plenty of ways to do that without F'ing up VH (solo album, new band, etc.).

Igno, you nailed it right on the head. I don't blame Mikey for throwing in with Sammy -- he got tired of sitting around waiting. He wanted to play and have fun. But apparently that did not sit well with King Edward.

Yeah, while he hates Mikey playing with Sammy, the rift was supposedly started when a radio interviewer asked MA about his hot sauce during a VH interview. It's all complete BS. Eddie was just looking for something to get pissed at MA for so he could get Wolfie in the band. By the time EVH finally comes to his senses (and you know some day he will), it'll be too late and they won't be with DLR any more.

Sammy's book also talks about how Eddie suddenly decided that he didn't like Mike making as much on the songwriting as everyone else. For the one tour, they wanted to reduce Mike's pay to give Alex more because he was in debt. The vote was 3-1 against - Sammy was the only vote to keep Mike's share the same. Mike told him he was doing okay and that Alex needed it, and he was just happy to play.

Alan

EVH IS Van Halen. His guitar is the signature sound of the band. I would not want to hear Van Halen with another guitarist but I couldn't care less if they had a different bassist.

It's not the same without Mike. He's a solid bassist (check out the harmonics on "Dirty Movies") and a great backing singer and has serious onstage charisma that went well with the band.
Sticking some teenager up there is just lame even if he can play. DLR's voice sounded pretty bad on the reunion tour and I really don't have high hopes for this record.

I guess this means there are Two And A Half Van Halens in the band now.

WINNING!

I agree with this.

Y'all maybe interested in a book I read last summer titled "Everybody wants some, The Van Halen Saga" by Ian Christie. The book starts with where the bandmates all came from , their early years right on up to the present. Most interesting is the in depth look as to what's not been happening for all these years. If you love the bad, heck even if you only like VH, this book will entertain you from beginning to end. Yes i know that this is a music forum but I thought y'all might want to know about this. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!

I'm with you Pete. It's been way too long since the tour ended and the album being released. Eddie has said he has tons of music sitting around...where is it? Don't get me wrong...I would love to see an album of new material with DLR and MA...that is VH to me. If the album does come out, I'll buy it but I am not overly excited about the contents.

I read that book a while ago - I'd recommend combining it w/Sammy's book. Lots of good stuff there.

Alan

I'm on this bandwagon, too. Sammy said he's taken crap for years about why VH didn't put out a record for that long period when Eddie basically blamed their lack of production on him. He said it was (at the time) 17 years since his last album with the band and they've done one album - VH3.

I think part of the problem is that Eddie has never really had anyone who would say no to him, or tell him when he had a bad idea. And on those rare occasions when someone did, he wouldn't listen. And now he's at a point where I don't think he can produce anything. The sad part is, I think he's very insecure about his place in history - he's started making some bizarre claims about how he's responsible for some musical innovations that he really didn't have much to do with.

One of the ironic things about the Mike situation is that Eddie got pissed about the stuff Mike was doing that was 'taking away' from VH. But Eddie was pissed when Dave said he didn't want Eddie to do the appearance on "Beat It".

Alan