Van Halen’s manager, Irving Azoff, has commented on the future of EVH Gear, the guitar and amp brand founded by Eddie Van Halen, who passed away on October 6.
“Wolf[gang Van Halen, Eddie’s son] and [longtime EVH tech] Matt Bruck will run it, and that’s going to continue,” the manager revealed in an interview with Pollstar.
Azoff also pointed towards the possible unearthing of unreleased recordings, although he said it’s too early to speculate.
“Wolf and Alex [Van Halen] will go up to 5150, the studio in Ed’s house, but there’s been a lot of recording over the years,” Azoff says. “I can’t predict that for sure there will be anything new, but for sure they’re going to look at it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the manager confirmed that Van Halen’s much-rumored summer stadium tour was on the cards for 2019, and set to feature founding members David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony, with guest appearances from Foo Fighters and Metallica.
Sadly, the deterioration of Eddie’s health ultimately prevented the farewell tour from going ahead.
“We had lots of stops and starts, but there was every intention of doing a summer stadium tour (in 2019), and as the cancer moved around, [Van Halen] was physically unable to do it,” Azoff says. “There is no doubt in my mind that it would have been massive.”
Anthony and former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar paid tribute to their fallen friend and bandmate this week with an emotional video, during which they said they were “devastated” by his passing.