In a new interview with NJ.com, Zakk Wylde said that Ozzy Osbourne had ideas for a new album in mind prior to his death, one that would hearken back to their work together in the early 1990s.
“He was texting me, ‘Zakk, let’s do another record. Because I really loved it when you were going through your ALLMAN BROTHERS, [LYNYRD] SKYNYRD phase when we did ‘No More Tears’. It’s heavy but it’s more melodic. It’s not pummeling heavy.'” Wylde said. “So I said, ‘All right, Oz. Whatever you want.'”
The guitarist, who had been a member of Ozzy’s solo band on and off for nearly four decades, was excluded from the legendary heavy metal singer’s 2020 LP “Ordinary Man”, which was the first Osbourne effort to be produced by Andrew Watt. The follow-up effort, 2022’s “Patient Number 9”, was also helmed by Watt and featured Wylde playing on the majority of the tracks. “Ordinary Man” was recorded with Watt playing guitar.
In a 2020 interview with Kerrang!, Ozzy said that there was a simple reason for Zakk’s absence from the “Ordinary Man” record. According to the singer, strong musical ideas emerged so quickly during his early jam sessions with Andrew, GUNS N’ ROSES bassist Duff McKagan and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith that the prospect of Zakk joining on guitar didn’t come up, because, “we didn’t know we were making an album”.
Wylde became Osbourne’s guitarist in 1987 after sending the singer a demo tape.
This past July, Zakk told Guitar World magazine that Ozzy was “almost like an older brother” to him. “There was almost a 20-year age gap between us,” he told Guitar World. “With our relationship, there was the fun drinking — but if I ever needed advice, I could talk to him.”
Ozzy died on July 22 of a heart attack, his death certificate revealed. The certificate filed in London also said Osbourne suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Back in 2012, Zakk told Rock Cellar Magazine that he felt welcomed into the heavy metal family when he first joined Ozzy’s band. “Oh, totally,” he said. “Even those very first shows, everyone was rooting for me because they knew I was on the team, and loved Randy Rhoads as much as they did. They could see I played Randy’s stuff exactly his way, and had the highest respect for what he did. There’s no way you can fill his shoes, so you just have to give respect to his music and play it accurately. You have to, because this is the house that Rhoads built. And without Randy Rhoads, there never would have been a Zakk Wylde.”