Ozzy Osbourne has had a difficult couple of years, and music has never been more vital to getting him through. It's now emerged that his time he's got a team of guitar heroes to help him with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck alongside familiar collaborators Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde all lined up to guest on the follow-up to Ozzy's 2020's Ordinary Man album.
“I’ve done 15 tracks,” Ozzy told Metal Hammer earlier this year. “It’s kept me alive you know. These past two years I’ve been in a terrible fucking state between the accident [the singer seriously injured himself after falling at home in 2019] and then the pandemic. It’s kept me sane – I’ve needed the music."
Tony Iommi: “None of us were brilliant musicians but as a band it worked”
During a new Ozzy Speaks interview with friend and guitarist Billy Morrison for SiriusXM, the Black Sabbath legend has now revealed more about the cast of heroes helping on those songs.
"On this new album, I'm working with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi and Zakk [Wylde]," revealed Ozzy.
Explaining the process of working with guest of the record, Ozzy was typically matter-of-fact; "You just write the song and you just ask them to sing [or play] what you [give them]"
"The good thing is it's interesting to work with somebody else," he added. "But the bad thing is if it don't work, you can't [just let it go] 'cause they'll get all pissed off."
And Ozzy also revealed that there was a potentially sticky situation with Clapton's guest appearance on the album.
"Eric Clapton, on this new record, one of the lyrics was about Jesus, and he wasn't sure about that. But it was all right in the end… [The solo he did] is very good."
Right now, we're scheduled for Ozzy Bootcamp in the beginning of January.
Zakk Wylde
Zakk Wylde has also recently commented on his involvement with Ozzy's return that will see him back as his live guitarist again for the first time since 2019.
"The last show we did was New Years Eve, maybe 2019 at the [LA] Forum and that was before the Covid thing and before Oz messed himself up [with his accident]," Wylde told Q1043 New York. "Everything was going great, the tour was going great. Right now, [we're] scheduled for Ozzy Bootcamp in the beginning of January."
We're assuming that bootcamp will mean tour rehearsals ahead of his live return in Berlin on 26 January 2022 – a date he was originally scheduled to play at the end of November, 2020.
"Oz is doing his Kegel exercises and taking his pre-natal vitamins so we can get his bench lift and squat numbers right back to Ozzy-standard world record numbers," Wylde joked about the singer's preparations.
Ozzy's new album will once again see him working with Grammy Award-winning producer Andrew Watt, the former California Breed guitarist who is very much the man of the moment between his work with Eddie Vedder, Post Malone , Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.
