Van Halen Music Group

It would be understandable if Gary Cherone, Van Halen's new lead singer, were a little nervous about job security. This is not exactly a career position. David Lee Roth was dumped after 11 years in front of the microphone, and his successor, Sammy Hagar, was either fired (he says) or quit (the band says) 11 years later in 1996.

Like a lot of fans, Sammy Hagar winced when he heard Monday that he and old rival David Lee Roth would \o7both \f7be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March with Van Halen. "This could be a complete and total disaster. It could be wonderful too. It really could. But it also could be such a disaster and an embarrassment that it goes down in history." Roth was the voice of Van Halen from its mid-'70s Sunset Strip days up into the monster success of the 1980s.

Give credit (or blame?) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen and planning to tour. The mercurial Roth, who officially left Van Halen on April Fool's Day in 1985, will reunite with his old band for a tour that kicks off in North Carolina in early May and includes June stops in L.A., Orange and San Diego counties, according to sources in the concert industry. Joining Roth will be guitar hero Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen.

For Van Halen, the stars seemed aligned for a triumphant 2007. Next month, the group will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the plan was to follow that with a summer reunion tour that would feature David Lee Roth back at the mike for the first time since the Reagan years. But, once again, the backstage soap opera of Van Halen is the story of the day.

How did that old Van Halen song go? \o7"I found the simple life ain't so simple .... " \f7The iconic Los Angeles metal band is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a New York banquet Monday night, but now it appears that only one original member, bassist Michael Anthony, will even show up. Eddie Van Halen released a statement Thursday saying he is going into a rehab program.

The Van Halen brothers and David Lee Roth are poised to announce a major reunion that would put them all on tour together for the first time since the Reagan administration -- although we've heard that before. Live Nation, the concert promotion company, has scheduled a news conference for Monday morning at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills for an "announcement of monumental proportions."

The boys from Van Halen, most notably mercurial guitarist Eddie Van Halen, showed up as promised at a Los Angeles news conference Monday to announce their fall tour with original singer David Lee Roth, starting Sept. 27 in Charlotte, N.C., and stopping Nov. 20 at Staples Center in Los Angeles before wrapping Dec. 11 in Calgary, Canada.

The fans of Van Halen are a brash bunch but also accustomed to having their hearts broken -- if you inspect their closets closely, you might find tear stains on all that vintage spandex. That's why Tuesday night was an emotional one as the prodigal band, with David Lee Roth back on vocals, came home to Los Angeles to play for the first time since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

If you see David Lee Roth this week, don't mention the V-word. Van Halen returns this Friday as the titular brothers, guitarist Eddie and drummer Alex, join bassist Michael Anthony and lead singer Sammy Hagar -- not Roth -- on stage in Greensboro, N.C., for the start of a summer tour that will wind its way toward Southern California with an Aug. 16 show at the Arrowhead Pond and the tour's finale, a hometown show at Staples Center on Aug. 19.