Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Alex Van Halen stated that there have been discussions about Ozzy Osbourne recording an album with him and his brother, the renowned guitarist Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen, in a recent interview with Gastão Moreira of Brazil’s Kazagastão, as per Blabbermouth. Alex responded as follows when asked if it’s true that Eddie once contacted Ozzy and asked him to sing in Van Halen.
Oh, yeah. No. Ed and I met with Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager], because we were kind of at a loss of which direction we wanted to go. That was probably in about 2000… I’m trying to remember, because it was right before [‘The Osbournes’] TV show; the next day they had that TV show. So we sat with Sharon. I mean, it was kind of an interesting evening because she’s a lovely lady. I don’t know what people would say about her, grousing and complain[ing], but she’s a lovely lady who really had to fend for herself in a male-dominated world. We played several times with Ozzy on the bill, and she was always there to support him, to guide him, to give him comfort because most performers are not as sure of themselves as they appear to be. So we got together and the final thing we talked about was, she says, ‘Okay, it sounds like a good idea. Let’s do that. Let’s make a record together. Only one thing. I have a meeting tomorrow with some people about a television show.’ And the rest is history. That’s how close it got.
Ozzy praised Eddie Van Halen back in 2020.
You think you’ve seen it all. Then out of the blue, somebody comes out with such a revolutionized way of playing. To watch Eddie play was, like — his hands would turn into a spider. It was remarkable. He always made it look like it was so easy.
But they never worked together.
No, no, no. He phoned me up one time and asked me if I wanted to sing in his band — way after Sammy [Hagar had left the band]. I think he was a bit drunk. We’ve all done one of them — calling at four o’clock in the morning, going, [makes unintelligible sound]
