Van Halen to announce reunion details Monday

08/08/2007 4:27 PM, Reuters
Jonathan Cohen

David Lee Roth and his former bandmates in Van Halen will officially announce their reunion during a news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles next Monday, according to their representatives.

"Come witness rock history as Van Halen makes an announcement of monumental proportions," said a media alert e-mailed on Wednesday by concert promoter Live Nation.

Roth will be present at the 11 a.m. PDT announcement, along with Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen and his older brother, Alex Van Halen, the band's drummer.

It will not exactly be a reunion of the classic lineup famed for such hits as "Panama" and "Running with the Devil," because bassist Michael Anthony has been replaced by Eddie's 16-year-old son, Wolfgang.

Roth and Van Halen were supposed to hit the road earlier this year for a reunion tour, but plans fell through when Eddie Van Halen entered rehab in March for undisclosed issues. His illness also scuttled a potential reunion at the group's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction later that month.

Roth, 52, quit Van Halen in the mid-1980s, during the band's heyday, in hopes of attaining solo stardom. Those dreams crashed, and Van Halen continued successfully with Sammy Hagar on vocals.

The band's luck ran out a decade later when Hagar and Van Halen acrimoniously parted ways, and a new album with a third singer tanked. Since then, both Roth and Hagar have briefly aligned with Van Halen, and the two singers even toured together, despite Roth's barely concealed enmity for Hagar.