If saying the right things is half the battle, then the reunited Van Halen is clearly on the path to winning over skeptics.

Most rock-watchers probably gave the idea of a VH tour about a 20 percent chance of starting and finishing as scheduled. (Compare that to a Guns 'N Roses tour, and the number looks great.)

But at Monday's press conference in Los Angeles, the band members seemed to anticipate the pessimism in the room and were prepared for it.

Here are some highlights from the press conference, which you can view on Youtube.com:

David Lee Roth on the reunion: "This is not a reunion -- this is a new band. This is a revision with hits that you're so familiar with -- as familiar as the roof of your own mouth is to you. ... Usually when a band comes back like us, it's rockers with walkers. Not us."

Roth on Wolfgang Van Halen replacing Michael Anthony on bass: "Michael Anthony is part of this band's history. There's a lot of great alumni who have been through this band. I'm shocked that any of us are still vertical after 30 years."

Eddie Van Halen on the significance on the return of Roth: "It is totally blowing our own minds, and I think it will your's too. It's better than it's ever been. None of us want to give you less than our best, and we are at our best."

Eddie on the future of the band and a possible new album: "We are a band, and we're going to continue."
Roth on the future: "This is not like The Police. The idea is that this will continue on and on and on.

Roth on the upcoming tour: "Come and judge the performance harshly, please. I beg you, come on down and see. I've done more rehearsing in the four months than I've done in the last 20 summers."

[AP photos]