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Rivers Cuomo is disappointed that Eddie Van Halen won’t get to hear Weezer's 'Van Weezer' album

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"He could have seen his influence bearing fruit decades later,” Cuomo says

[L-R] Rivers Cuomo and Eddie Van Halen
(Image credit: John Medina/Chris McKay/Getty Images)

Weezer’s “all guitars and shredding” album, Van Weezer, was scheduled for release in May 2020 but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now the record, which Weezer dedicated to Eddie Van Halen, will come out in on May 7, 2021. But as singer and guitar player Rivers Cuomo noted in a new interview, this means that Van Halen, who passed away on October 6, 2020 at the age of 65, won’t hear it.

“Just from a self-centered perspective, we’re disappointed,” Cuomo told Apple Music’s The Strombo Show.

“It would have been cool if he could have heard the record. And I don’t know if it would have meant anything to him. But he could have seen his influence bearing fruit decades later and in this modern record of 2021.”

“I don’t know if it would have meant anything to him,” Cuomo reiterated. “But it would have been cool for us.”

Even as Weezer prepares for the release of Van Weezer, they have just issued another new record, OK Human. What’s more, Cuomo revealed in the same interview that they have four additional albums, set to correspond to the four seasons, in the works.

Richard Bienstock
Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.