The late and great Taylor Hawkins played drums on a few songs from Ozzy Osbourne's recent album Patient Number 9 and even has writing credits on "Parasite," "Mr. Darkness," and "God Only Knows." In an interview with Rolling Stone, producer and songwriter Andrew Watt said there are a few additional songs that Osbourne and Hawkins worked on together that'll be used for something else. Or in his own words, "There's a bunch of other stuff with Ozzy and Taylor, as well, that's going to be used for another thing." Given Osbourne's recently-prolific output of two albums in 2020 and 2022, maybe we can expected an exclusively Hawkins-meets-Osbourne EP sometime soon?
Elsewhere in the same interview, Osbourne expressed his confusion about Ozzfest-type bands that would say Black Sabbath influenced them… even though they sounded nothing like Black Sabbath. "Bands on the Ozzfest would say, 'Man, Sabbath influenced me.' I'd listen to some of them, and I'd go, ‘I guess I can hear a bit of Sabbath there.' But other bands, I'd be like, 'What the fuck is going on?' 'Death, die, arrrgh.' Man, what the fuck is that all about? But then again, we gave somebody a stage." So I think it might be safe to say that Osbourne isn't getting into death metal anytime soon. Or if he is, then he's not buying the Black Sabbath influence bit.
Ozzy Osbourne released his new album Patient Number 9 on September 9. The album features guest appearances from Jeff Beck, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, and Eric Clapton. The album also features Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith alongside Hawkins, and bassists Robert Trujillo of Metallica and Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses. Patient Number 9 is available here.
