Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen revealed some of the singers that were approached about joining Van Halen at certain points in their career. Among them were Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath) and Chris Cornell (Soundgarden).

Alex said the following about Osbourne, who almost made music with the band before “The Osbournes” took off:

“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.”

Osbourne also confirmed the idea was being discussed:

“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.”

Alex then when on to discuss the idea of recruiting Cornell:

“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.”