Ozzy Osbourne shared some memories of the great Eddie Van Halen on a recent episode of his talk show, Ozzy Speaks, on SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard, channel 39. The most interesting revelation is that Eddie once called Ozzy drunk to see if Ozzy wanted to join Van Halen.
Ozzy was asked if the two ever worked together, when he offered this great tidbit. "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]."
Ozzy of course had nothing but nice things to say about Eddie's guitar skills. "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."
You can hear the whole episode on demand on the SiriusXM app.
Eddie died on October 6th from complications dealing with his throat cancer.
Ozzy previously shared a tale to Rolling Stone about the time Sabbath and VH toured together:
"The last time I spent any serious time with Eddie was on the last official Black Sabbath tour I did in '79, when they opened up for us. They were such good guys to be around. We had such fun. Every time I ever saw Eddie Van Halen, it was fun.
"I remember seeing Eddie do that finger-tapping thing, and that was the first time I'd ever seen anyone do that. Just when you think nobody can make guitar playing exciting, somebody like that comes out. He was one of them.
"That thing with finger-tapping in the 80s, with the hair bands, everybody was doing that finger tapping. Once you've seen the master do it, everyone else comes second. Anybody after Eddie Van Halen was in second, as far as I'm concerned."
Osbourne went on to say that the "one thing I loved about Eddie was he always had a big grin on his face, and he looked like he was enjoying every second he was up there. Whether it was showbiz bullshit or not — I don't think it was — he always looked like he was having the best time of his life up there."
Ozzy later said "could sit and watch Eddie Van Halen play guitar all day. He's so entertaining as a guitar player. He made it look like it was not difficult. He made it look like it was a natural thing. Everybody else was trying to be Eddie Van Halen, but there is only one Eddie Van Halen. I thought he was brilliant. God only knows, what you have to do to get that good."
[via Blabbermouth]
