Producer Andrew Watt has revealed that he and Ozzy Osbourne had recorded more songs together before the Prince Of Darkness passed away last summer.
Andrew was behind the desk for Ozzy’s final two albums, 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9. However, he also says in a new interview that he struggles to listen to those songs now, given Ozzy died just 17 days after Back To The Beginning.
“There are some songs that we made for a specific reason,” he tells Rolling Stone. “And, yeah, that’s all I can say. They’re hard for me to listen to.”
Andrew adds that there’s “kind of” plans to eventually release the music, and recalls that they listened back over their new songs the night before Back To The Beginning gig at Birmingham’s Villa Park.
“The night before the concert, I actually went in Birmingham with Sharon and a couple of people to go get a curry, and I was texting with Ozzy. He was in his hotel room, and he was, like, ‘Come to the hotel, come to the hotel.’
“The night before the concert, I actually went in Birmingham with Sharon and a couple of people to go get a curry, and I was texting with Ozzy. He was in his hotel room, and he was, like, ‘Come to the hotel, come to the hotel.’
“So I went. I brought a curry with me and sat with him. And he was drawing like he usually does, and we sat and we listened to the stuff that we’d made, and made notes.
“That and the next day were the last times I got to see him. But we had a beautiful listening session and talked about a lot of stuff.”
He adds that he still misses Ozzy every day, and especially values the chance Ozzy took on him especially as he came from more of a pop background. He’s produced more rock albums since working with him, including Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter, Iggy Pop’s Every Loser and the two most recent albums by the Rolling Stones.
“I always loved rock music, but I was a pop producer before he chose to let me stand next to him… and then I got to do all these amazing things after. But he was the first one. And… he chose Randy Rhoads. He chose Zakk Wylde; Jake E. Lee.”
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