Steve Lukather: 'Eddie (Van Halen) is Doing OK'!

LOS ANGELES (Van Hallen Fans Website) - Edward Van Halen, largely out of sight in recent years due to his battle with cancer and marital discord, will make a rare recorded appearance in September when he guests on Toto guitarist Steve Lukather's upcoming Christmas album, Santamental.

Van Halen joins Lukather, an old pal, on a rendition of the standard "Joy To The World" that Lukather said, it will sound a bit different than what most people would expect. "I did a version of 'Joy To The World' that sounds like it's 'Hot For Teacher' or 'Space Boogie.' It's that tempo, that groove, and we rearranged the voicings around the melody. Me and him go back and forth on some solos. He's one of my oldest buds," he said.

However, Lukather did not want to talk too much about Van Halen's personal life, except to say that he felt both the guitarist and his band are doing OK. "I know too much but I can't tell you anything. I'm sworn to secrecy. Those guys are fine. I think they're sitting back and kind of laughing at what their old singers are doing," Lukather said, referring to former Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, whose co-headlining tour picks up again on Thursday (July 25) at the Ford Center Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Toto is also on the road and next performs Friday (July 26) at Brookhaven Amphitheatre in Farmingville, New York.