We’ve been waiting since forever for Ozzy Osbourne to drop his new album, and now Ordinary Man is almost here, with a January release date. Producer Andrew Watts has come out to announce that the writing process for the album took only four days.
In an interview with Billboard, Ozzy producer Andrew Watts reveals the process behind creating Ordinary Man and how despite it looking unlikely to make it out at many points, it came together in only four days.
Watts and Osbourne linked up after Post Malone bought a photo of Ozzy from a bar and Watts, who often works with Post, thought he had to make a collab between them.
You can see the live version of ‘Take What You Want’ below, which even features Andrew Watts in the performance.
“When I heard that, I had this image of him walking down Sunset with that picture, and I was, like, ‘I gotta make a song for Post and Ozzy.’ I’ve said insane shit out loud before, and this was one of those times.”
Then, being friends with Ozzy’s daughter Kelly, Watts managed to get ‘Take What You Want’ put together with Post Malone.
“I told her my idea and asked if she thought her dad would be into it. She’s a Post fan, so she’s, like, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ Then Ozzy got really sick and was in the hospital, so it was, like, ‘He’s gonna do it,’ but then his health was taking longer, and it was, like, ‘Is he gonna do it?’ I just kept staying on Kelly and [Osbourne’s wife] Sharon, and eventually, they told me to come over.”
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“We wrote and recorded Ozzy’s entire album, musically, in four days. There was no premeditation. The three of us just got in my basement, put on headphones, looked at each other, and wrote 12 songs, 10 of which constitute the album. It was magic. I don’t even remember it,” says Watts.
Ozzy reportedly came over to listen to the album and afterwards simply responded saying “It’s cool.”
“My heart just fuckin’ went into my gut. He was, like, ‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’ Stands up, gets his cane, goes upstairs. I go, ‘Oh my God, he hated it! What do I do?’ He calls me the next day, like, ‘Okay, so when do we start writing?’ I sound like I’m making this up, but he comes over the next day, and we made Ozzy’s entire album from top to bottom — all music, guitar solos, all vocals written — in four weeks. It’s the proudest of anything I’ve ever been, because it brought the 12-year-old kid out of me again. Don’t get me wrong, I love the pop music that I make, but this is what I feel like I was born to do: play rock guitar. I got to be fuckin’ Randy Rhoads in 2019.”
