Van Halen denied today that the group would be taking over INXS' role in a possible sequel to this past summer's Rock Star: INXS CBS reality series.
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MTV News had reported yesterday that "a source close to the show claimed that the core Van Halen trio... will be auditioning potential frontmen and women" if CBS renews the lead singer talent competition (whose fate is still undecided) for a second season. However the news outlet had later mysteriously removed the report from its MTVNews.com website within hours of its publication, only to issue a correction early this afternoon.
According to the new report, Van Halen's spokesperson has told MTV that "the band flatly denies any involvement in the show." MTV also issued a mea culpa for the original report's statement that the spokesperson had told it that "the band had no comment regarding pending projects." "[The] spokesperson was never asked specific questions regarding the group's hypothetical involvement with the Rock Star show, MTV News regrets the oversight," the news outlet stated in its correction.
The one part of the original report that MTV News seems willing to stand by is that Rock Star co-host Dave Navarro had declined to discuss either the show's future or his personal involvement in it but had told MTV that "Van Halen would be awesome -- I'd just love to sit and hang with Ed [Van Halen]."
MTV's report had followed several weeks of rumors about potential second season Rock Star bands in which Van Halen and Alice in Chains had been the bands most frequently mentioned. Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell had denied that the group would replace INXS and scoffed at the notion that the band would even consider appearing on the show.