David Lee Roth, the singer man of Eddie Van Halen's band, Van Halen, says the band is working on a new album. The flamboyant frontman who replaced replacement vocalist Sammy Hagar, says the new album should be ready in about 18 months.

Talking to Jim Florentine, who hosts Ozzy's Boneyard on SiriusXM, David Lee Roth says Van Halen are in the early stages of the new album. Roth says Van Halen likes to start far in advance.

David Lee Roth said "I was up at (guitarist) Edward (Van Halen)'s house, maybe three days ago - just before I came here to the city - and we're starting to put music together. Not to give away exactly what the package will be, it's gonna be about 18 months, I think. We start way, way, way in advance, 'cause we are eminently art-centric, which is a really fancy way of saying we really do generate all the artwork, the graphics, etc."

Van Halen takes a personal hand in every aspect of the music, from the recording to the artwork. Lee Roth said "We don't hire out and have somebody design a bunch of album covers for us and then choose.... we start from scratch ourselves."

The California hard rock band even takes control of their own promotion, stage show and concert T-shirts. Lee Roth says "Same thing with the merchandise - if you buy a t-shirt, that was designed, literally, in my living room. On and on... stage design, lighting rig, putting the show together - it takes about a year and a half, 18 months, because any idea that you have is 85 phone calls. Anybody can go, 'I got an idea, it's a stage that's shaped like, uh, like a square on top of a circle'. Great, my question never was, 'were you able to dream up a stage design', my question is, 'are you prepared to do the 87 phone calls that are about to follow now, to make sure it came out the way we decided'. And then there's another 80 phone calls that are gonna follow that because we have to figure out how to take the f**kin' thing apart and put it in the trucks and buses. And, and, and. So if you really want to generate the ideas from scratch and bring them all the way to the finish, you're gonna have to learn a few other languages, and you're gonna have to speak those over a lot of extra phone calls. And that's usually the break point for most artists."

But that doesn't slow the creative musical progress. Van Halen is getting into their groove. Lee Roth says "Oh, yeah, we're writing... I write lyrics routinely. It's a perishable skill. And the band plays together routinely, at least three times a week. They're up at Ed's place, routinely."