Coming as a surprise to probably no-one, Rob Zombie has described his first encounter with outspoken and controversial rocker, Ozzy Osbourne, as weird, awesome and uncomfortable.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Zombie reflected on their first meeting, way before they ever collaborated or toured together. He also revealed that it was Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, who was also Zombie’s manager, that bought the pair together.
“Ozzy’s great. I’ve known Ozzy for a long time. We toured together for the first time maybe 20 years ago, but I met him before,” Zombie said.
“The first time I met Ozzy was really weird. I went to his house — I don’t remember why — and that was where I met him, at his house. And I thought, ‘Oh, there’s gonna be a bunch of people. My manager will be there, Sharon will be there.’”
Once Zombie arrived at the Osbourne mansion, Ozzy sat Zombie down for some feedback on his music, namely, an entire album.
Zombie explains, “It ends up with just me and Ozzy by ourselves; I just met him. And he’s, like, ‘Oh, Rob. I wanna play you my new record.’ So he puts on his new record. I think he’s gonna play one song maybe. He plays the whole album, looking directly at me, singing most of it. And I’m simultaneously thinking, ‘This is awesome,’ and, ‘This is so uncomfortable, I don’t know what to do.”
Since that fateful day, Zombie and Ozzy have joined forces on numerous occasions over the years. They’ve toured together and collaborated on, ‘Iron Head’, a song from Zombie’s album The Sinister Urge.
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Zombie hit the headlines earlier this month after a very colorful interview with GQ magazine in which he described why he is a vegan.
“We’re all brainwashed from the moment we’re born that all the cows are happy and the pigs are happy and everybody’s so happy and it’s all ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm.’ And then I saw a movie that was the first time I really saw how brutal and disgusting factory farming was. That’s when I was, like, ‘I’m done,” he said.
Zombie’s seventh studio album, the chaotically-titled The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, is scheduled to be released on March 12th through Nuclear Blast.
Watch the full interview of Rob Zombie reflecting on his first meeting with Ozzy Osbourne:
