In an interview with Rolling Stone , the drummer and co-founder of Van Halen talked about this and several other moments in the band's history.
Besides Ozzy Osbourne , the musician mentions that Chris Cornell and Joe Satriani also almost joined the band.
During the interview, Alex recounted how he and his brother first contacted Ozzy and his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne , to get the singer to record an album with the band.
Alex commented, "When you get a dog, you don't expect it to be a cat," and also said he was open to whatever implications there might be for the vocalist to join the band.
"When you've got Ozzy, you've got Ozzy. Play the music, he'll sing, and it'll be amazing!"
Although the deal almost went through, in 2002 the English musician ended up joining MTV, launching his successful reality show about his family, The Osbournes .
Ozzy Osbourne commented on the event to Rolling Stone , “Yes, we discussed it, it would have been phenomenal if it had happened! Eddie and Alex have always been great friends of mine, for a long time now, and I regret that we never did it. The Osbournes at the time prevented me from creating new music, unfortunately.”
Alex also commented on the time Chris Cornell played with him and his brother, “Chris was going through a fragile time in his life, but I remember I was on drums and he started playing bass, we played for 45 minutes, man, he was so into it that he started bleeding, that's the kind of guy you'd want in your band, but then he died.”
Following Eddie Van Halen's death, Alex Van Halen considered reviving the band in 2022 with David Lee Roth and musicians from Roth's solo band, including Joe Satriani on guitar and former bassist Michael Anthony.
However, Alex's health problems and an explosive argument with Roth, following the suggestion of honoring Eddie at the shows, led to the end of the reunion plans. Alex lamented the lack of teamwork.
He recently released a snippet of "Unfinished," the last song he recorded with Eddie , which will be featured on the Brothers audiobook .
READ ALSO: Alex Van Halen announces tour to promote the book 'Brothers'
