No Joke: Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell Almost Joined Van Halen
This sounds completely insane, but it's 100% true: Ozzy Osbourne almost joined Van Halen.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Alex Van Halen says the band approached Ozzy in 2001, after Gary Cherone's tenure as vocalist ended.
And they were deep in the process of recruiting him, until the MTV show "The Osbournes" launched, and basically killed the deal.
"Rolling Stone" reached out to Ozzy, and he confirmed the story. Quote, "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."
Van Halen went on to reunite with Sammy Hagar in 2003.
Another amazing opportunity was missed years later, when Van Halen rehearsed Chris Cornell as a possible singer. Alex says they had a jam session with Chris and they were sold on him . . . until he died in 2017.
Also, in the interview, Alex confirms that a planned Van Halen tour following Eddie's death in 2020 was torpedoed by David Lee Roth, who absolutely freaked out at the suggestion that they pay tribute to Eddie during the shows.
Dave's rep calls this claim "nonsense."
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Guitarist Jake E. Lee Shot, Expected To Make Full Recovery
Former Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee was walking his dog in Las Vegas yesterday morning when he was shot multiple times. Las Vegas police believe the shooting was completely random, and the good news is that he’s expected to make a full recovery. Lee was the lead guitarist for Ozzy from 1982 and 1987, but hasn’t played live since 2019 due to pain; he was first diagnosed with carpal tunnel, but it turned out that he has no cartilage left in his right hand and very little in his left.
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Zakk Wylde Dumping Hendrix For Ozzy
In a statement, Zakk Wylde has announced that he’s dropping out of the remaining 2024 shows on the Experience Hendrix tour, but no one can really blame him. The official statement from the tour announcing his departure says in part, “This is due to his inclusion in the upcoming performance honoring Ozzy Osbourne’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” After last night’s show in Nashville, there are four dates left on the Experience Hendrix tour, featuring Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Eric Johnson, and more.
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50 Cent will pocket $15 million for his first-ever Las Vegas residency.
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John Mayer now has his own signature line of guitar strings.
Check out the trailer for Bruce Springsteen's ABC special, "Backstage and Backstreets."
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