Van Halen as we know it died when Eddie Van Halen died. Though according to ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted in an interview with The Palm Beach Post, there was a tribute tour being put together about six months ago.
Newsted said he was approached by Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen to join a tribute tour featuring Joe Satriani on guitar. Newsted headed out to California to jam with the band, but said he ultimately felt like it wasn't possible to do justice to Van Halen.
"How could you? There's nobody that can top it, so how do you show it honor? I didn't want it to be viewed as a money grab. And then it kind of just all fizzled."
Eddie's son and Van Halen bassist Wolfgang Van Halen has made it abundantly clear ever since the passing of his father that Van Halen would not carry on. Especially not with him on guitar, which he called at the time a "shitty lie attempting to capitalize on these awful times. Please stop with this." Though ex-vocalist Sammy Hagar and ex-bassist Michael Anthony did mention in January that they were both very interested in doing a tribute tour, which obviously has been attempted at least once now. Given everyone was on the same page for one final Van Halen tour, it makes sense a show like this would happen.
