Alex Van Halen has said that he might complete some unfinished VAN HALEN music.
He’s exploring the possibility of using AI to create new guitar solos and has suggested that Robert Plant could sing on the tracks. The VAN HALEN drummer shared these ideas in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
Alex mentioned that there’s a lot of unreleased VAN HALEN music stored away. Many of these tracks were created during casual jam sessions over the years, but they haven’t been finished.
“They’re all little pieces,” he says. “A bunch of licks don’t make a song.”
He revealed that he has reached out to OpenAI, the non-profit organization behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT, to explore the possibility of analyzing “the patterns of how Edward would have played something” in order to generate new guitar solos. Even more surprising is his selection of LED ZEPPELIN’s Robert Plant, whom he hasn’t seen in over 30 years, to lead the project.
“You’re gonna think I’m out of my f**king mind,” Alex added. “But when conditions are right, things will manifest.”
Elsewhere in the interview, an Halen revealed that both Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell were considered as potential frontmen for VAN HALEN during periods when the band was between singers.
Alex shared that Osbourne was approached in 2001, two years after Gary Cherone‘s departure and before Sammy Hagar‘s return in 2003.
He and Eddie even met with BLACK SABBATH frontman Ozzy and his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne to discuss the possibility of recording an album together. However, the idea was dropped when the Osbournes launched their groundbreaking MTV reality show.
“When you get a dog, you don’t expect it to be a cat,” Alex told Rolling Stone. “When you get an Ozzy, you get Ozzy. Play the music, he’ll sing, and it’s gonna be great.”
In an email to Rolling Stone, Ozzy confirmed the story when the magazine reached out to him: “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 couldn’t recall the exact timing of when Chris Cornell was considered, but it was shortly before the SOUNDGARDEN singer’s death in 2017.
“Chris was in a very fragile part of his life, so to speak,” Alex 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.”
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