However, information about members past and present trickled in. The Van Halen brothers continued writing at 5150 Studios, Cherone recorded an album and toured with new band Tribe of Judah. One of the songs that Cherone had written for the scrapped second album with Van Halen, entitled "Left For Dead", would see its lyrics set to a new musical arrangement with Tribe of Judah.
Responding to speculation that he had been approached to replace Cherone, David Coverdale said, "I called a mutual friend and said, 'Tell Eddie I had nothing to do with this.' It just got ridiculous. I've heard that they were going to approach me, but since I left Purple I've always done my own thing. Why would I join anybody else?"
As reported by Slawterhouse, in 2000 at 5150, the band worked with Roth, writing new music, before falling out again. Eddie kept quiet, but made a rare appearance at the Los Angeles Police Department charity golf tournament in May 2001. Any band progress was interrupted on October 15, 2001, when Eddie and his wife of 21 years, actress Valerie Bertinelli, separated (though the couple did not file for divorce until December 8, 2005). In November 2001, Anthony claimed Roth had been working with the band again for a few months, but lawyers had shut it down. Anthony later denied this. The band was also dropped from Warner Bros., which had signed them in 1978. More positively, Eddie underwent treatment for cancer and announced his recovery on Van Halen's website in May 2002.
Eddie's only live performances during this period were joining Mountain to play "Never in My Life" in August 2002 and participating in a private audience jam at NAMM in January 2003. This jam took place at the Peavey booth (Peavey produced Eddie's signature "Wolfgang" model guitar). When word quickly spread through the NAMM show that Eddie was to play at the Peavey booth, he attracted a large number of people. But Eddie showed up late and drunk, and when he finally appeared, he was incoherent. As a result, Peavey chose not to offer an extension on their contract with Eddie, and thus stopped producing any EVH-signature products. Fender, which had purchased Charvel-Jackson, began a licensing deal with the EVH brand, including producing new amps and signature guitars, such as a copy of Eddie's famous "Frankenstein" Strat-style guitar.
