Back in the day, rock superstars Chris Cornell and Eddie Van Halen apparently were *this* close to releasing a collaboration, according to Cornell’s former guitarist Pete Thorn.

During an appearance on The Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White Show, Thorn revealed that Van Halen was a huge fan of Cornell, and began working with him during Cornell’s 2009 solo album, Scream.

“They were buddies … Eddie always wanted to do something with Chris, musically,” Thorn explained. “He loved his voice and he used to be like, ‘Man, I love him. We were always talking about doing something together.’”

Thorn, who produced songs on the album, got in contact with Van Halen’s amp guru, Dave Friedman.

“And 45 minutes later, [Friedman] texted me,” recalled Thorn. “He said, ‘Ed wants you to call him. Here’s his cellphone number.’”

The two met, and began working on a guitar part for the album’s title track, but the project was shelved and never came to fruition.

“I don’t want to get anybody excited thinking that this ever got finished, because it didn’t,” Thorn said. “But he did work on it. And, you know, I would go up there over the next couple of weeks, and he had played on it. I would listen to it and just be like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening. This is myself and Eddie on a track.’”

Filed under: Chris Cornell, Eddie Van Halen