Alex Van Halen has shared some intriguing ideas about finishing some of the band’s unfinished music, including using AI to generate new guitar solos and possibly bringing in legendary vocalist Robert Plant to join the project.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the Van Halen drummer opened up about the wealth of unreleased music the band has accumulated over the years. Many of these tracks were born from spontaneous jam sessions, but never fully developed into finished songs.
“There’s a lot of stuff stored away,” Alex explained. “They’re all little pieces. A bunch of licks don’t make a song.”
One idea he’s exploring is to use artificial intelligence, particularly tools like OpenAI, to analyze the way his brother Eddie Van Halen would have played certain parts, in order to create new guitar solos. What’s even more surprising is Alex’s suggestion to involve Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, someone he hasn’t seen in over 30 years, as the potential vocalist for the project.
“You’re gonna think I’m out of my f**king mind,” Alex admitted. “But when conditions are right, things will manifest.”
Alex also reflected on the band’s history and revealed that both Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell were considered as potential frontmen during times when Van Halen was between singers.
In 2001, two years after Gary Cherone’s departure and before Sammy Hagar’s return in 2003, Alex and his late brother Eddie approached Ozzy Osbourne about possibly recording an album together. The pair even met with Ozzy and his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne to discuss the collaboration, but the idea was ultimately abandoned due to the Osbournes’ commitment to the MTV reality series The Osbournes.
“When you get a dog, you don’t expect it to be a cat,” Alex explained. “When you get an Ozzy, you get Ozzy. Play the music, he’ll sing, and it’s gonna be great.”
Ozzy himself confirmed the story when Rolling Stone reached out. “Yes, we were discussing it. It is something that if it had come to fruition, would have been phenomenal,” Osbourne said. “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 also recalled a time when they considered Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell to front Van Halen, though he couldn’t pinpoint the exact timing. This was before Cornell’s tragic death in 2017. Alex shared a memorable moment from that time when he and Cornell played together: “Chris was in a very fragile part of his life, so to speak,” he said. “I got behind the drums, and he started playing bass. We played for 45 minutes. This motherf**ker got so into it, he started bleeding. I said, ‘This is the man you want.’ And then he died.”
