Ozzy Osbourne’s final recordings coming?
Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt recently spoke about his late friend Ozzy Osbourne’s final days. Their relationship began when Watt was tapped to produce Osbourne’s 2020 album “Ordinary Man.” Two years later, he reunited with the rock legend to produce what would become Osbourne’s final studio album, 2022’s “Patient Number 9.” Watt teased that there are secret recordings of new songs that Ozzy recorded before his death.
Recalling what it was like to collaborate with Osbourne, Watt described him as a “genius” to Rolling Stone.
“You have to understand. This man was making ‘Paranoid’ when he was 21 years old. So he had a 55-year career where everything was grandiose and at the highest level,” he said. “And he’s one of the smartest people I have ever met, and a history buff, and a genius, a literal genius.
“His persona was [just] persona. He was incredibly brilliant, incredibly sharp. His ears were reactive. You could think he wasn’t listening and he heard every single thing. There’d be times we’d be in the studio listening to something and he’s just drawing and I’m like, ‘Oh, he is not listening.’ And then he’d just give me this one line that cuts so deep, in a positive way.”
Ozzy Osbourne was deeply involved in songwriting
Watt went on to explain how deeply involved Osbourne was in every part of the songwriting process.
“He pointed out the bass is the most important thing in a rock song. You have to make sure the bass is there and pumping and cutting through and providing that sense of rhythm… It makes the song heavy, because the guitars can poke through if you have them mixed in the right way… He was very bass-focused, mix-wise, and making sure the bass came through. And if you listen to the records that we made together, there’s a lot of bass on those records… He was involved in every detail of every single mix-down, too. That’s how much he cared.”
When asked whether he and Osbourne had worked on any unreleased music, and if it might ever see the light of day, Watt replied simply: “I can’t talk about that!”
