Classic Rock
Alex says Van Halen almost recorded with Ozzy and Chris Cornell
The legendary drummer Alex Van Halen gave his first interview after Eddie Van Halen’s in 2020 at the age of 65. The musician is currently promoting his new book called “Brothers” that will tell from his point of view the incredible story of him, Eddie and the band Van Halen.
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According to Rolling Stone, he doesn’t even mention Sammy Hagar’s name in the book and says the band’s creative force always was him, Eddie and David Lee Roth. But he also revealed in the interview with the magazine that the group almost recorded with two other legendary vocalists: Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell.
Alex Van Halen says the band almost recorded with Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell
Back in 2001 the band sat down with Ozzy Osbourne’s wife and manager Sharon Osbourne and were planning to make an album with the former Black Sabbath vocalist. “When you get a dog, you don’t expect it to be a cat. When you get an Ozzy, you get Ozzy. Play the music, he’ll sing, and it’s gonna be great,” Alex Van Halen said.
However, when they were about to start to work together, the Ozzy’s family accepted MTV’s offer for the reality show “The Osbournes”. The Black Sabbath co-founder even talked with Rolling Stone about that. He said: “Yes, we were discussing it. It is something that if it had come to fruition, would have been phenomenal. Eddie and Alex were great friends of mine for a very long time and it’s a regret of mine that we never got it together. The Osbournes got in the way of creating new music at that time, unfortunately.”
As Alex Van Halen revealed in the interview, the group almost recorded with the late legendary Soundgarden and Audioslave vocalist Chris Cornell as well. He can’t precise when it was but it was shortly before Cornell’s death. The singer first jammed with Alex and Eddie and later on only with Alex.
“Chris was in a very fragile part of his life, so to speak. I got behind the drums, and he started playing bass. We played for 45 minutes. This motherfucker got so into it he started bleeding. I said, ‘This is the man you want.’ And then he died.”
