Ozzy Osbourne Talks New Song, Album, Eric Clapton and More

Ozzy Osbourne has a new album, Patient Number 9, slated for release.

Videos by American Songwriter

And the famed frontman recently talked about the LP on SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard channel with co-host Billy Morrison. During the chat, Osbourne also talked about guitarist Eric Clapton, AA meetings, and more.

The new album is slated to drop on September 9.

Fans can check out the video and audio clips from the interview below.

Ozzy Osbourne Believes Eric Clapton Used to Follow Him Around

Ozzy Osbourne: Did I ever tell you my Eric Clapton story?

Billy Morrison: You told me, but I think you should tell everyone else, cause it’s awesome.

Ozzy Osbourne: Well, okay. Many, many years ago, me and Sharon [Osbourne] were in New York and we were in, we had to go to an award show. Everybody was there and I, I was still doing drugs and alcohol and I was all, I was freaked out. So, we go to this award show and afterward there’s me, Grace Jones, that chick I did the award show with. Me, Grace Jones, and I wanted a picture of Eric Clapton, me, and Grace Jones together. I thought, “He’s gonna think I’m a-” And he’d just come out of someplace. So, he was freaking out, which I didn’t know.

Billy Morrison: Right.

Ozzy Osbourne: And I was, I’d convinced myself that he was gonna stop this photograph from being, and it never came. I never seen for the longest time. And then I went to an AA meeting in the valley many years later. It was like 10 years, 10 years later. I turn around in this AA meeting and there at the back was Eric Clapton sitting there and I’m like, “Fucking hell.”

Billy Morrison: So now you think, “He’s looking at me. He hates me.”

Ozzy Osbourne: I’m thinking, “He, he, I, he still remembers.” Not thinking of what he’s done in the last 10 years.

Billy Morrison: Yeah.

Ozzy Osbourne: I’m thinking, “All he’s done, he’s still thinking how much he hates me.”

Billy Morrison: Or that he was having a bad day that day. I mean, we all have bad days or you just made it up in your own head.

Ozzy Osbourne: Yes. You know [laughs] So I’m going out the double doors. I think, “At the end of the meeting, I’m gonna go out that door. I’m fucking legging this.”

Billy Morrison: That’s the bit that makes—cause we plan escapes.

Ozzy Osbourne: I’m thinking, “He hates me. He’s gonna, he’s gonna, he’s gonna call me the biggest cunt he ever met.” So, I’m just going back to cross the road. I’ll miss, I’ll get in the car, and drive off. A couple of weeks later I go again. There he is again. I’m thinking, “This fucking guy…”

Billy Morrison: Well now he’s following you. [laughs]

Ozzy Osbourne: Yeah. I’m paranoid as fuck. So, I’m just about to cross the road and get in my car and drive off. He goes, “Ozzy.” I go, “Here we go.” And he goes, “Good to see you in the room.” We had a chat and I thought, “Wow, what a nice guy.” The fucking next week, I go to a music stand and that photograph was in the magazine of the first magazine I picked up.

Billy Morrison: Really?

Ozzy Osbourne: Yeah.

Billy Morrison: It finally got published?

Ozzy Osbourne: [inaudible] Now I’m thinking, “See, he, he likes me now. He got the magazine.”

Billy Morrison: Ozzy, have you ever told him that story?

Ozzy Osbourne: No.

Billy Morrison: Well you have now.

Ozzy Osbourne Says He Had to ‘Really Fight’ For His New Album

Billy Morrison: This is the second single, right? We’re gonna world premiere it on Ozzy Speaks right now.

Ozzy Osbourne: I’ll tell you why don’t we just play it and…

Billy Morrison: Right. Okay.

Ozzy Osbourne: “Degradation Rules” it’s called.

Billy Morrison: That was “Degradation Rules” and that is absolutely fucking amazing, Ozzy, wow. I owe me. Right?

Ozzy Osbourne: Yeah. Yeah.

Billy Morrison: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. It’s like controlled chaos cause it’s, it’s like this energy thing going on with this really dark, savage…

Ozzy Osbourne: You know what it’s about, don’t you?

Billy Morrison: I was actually, that’s, is that the, is that the lyrics “masturbation” and “red”? The red tube thing is funny. I mean that’s really funny.

Ozzy Osbourne: Yeah. It’s, I didn’t know.

Billy Morrison: What an amazing, what an amazing track, man. Fucking hell. Andrew, so he’s definitely getting you isn’t he in the studio? He’s definitely understanding what Ozzy is.

Ozzy Osbourne: Well,the trouble of how he produces from word goes, “If you are producing my album, how do you know what’s in my head?”

Billy Morrison: Right. Obviously. Yeah.

Ozzy Osbourne: You get a song idea and you, you, you have what you want in your head or you, you and you go, “That will go greatly, that will…” I really had to fight for this album.

Billy Morrison: In terms of subject matter and what you wanted to write about?

Ozzy Osbourne: No, it’s been two, I’ve been working it for two years. So after I recorded it, I did a mix and I hated the mix. I hated it. It, it took a lot of perseverance and a lot, it’s, you know what it’s like really. 

Billy Morrison: Of course. Yeah. You pick it apart, but the bit I’m asking you about is writing, cause these are Ozzy songs through and through. How does it go? Do you just sit on a couch with Andrew?

Ozzy Osbourne: He’s got his machine in his house.

Billy Morrison: Right. Okay.

Ozzy Osbourne: We just go and I always work it.

Billy Morrison: So he’ll have some riffs and you’ll go there.

Ozzy Osbourne: Yeah.

Billy Morrison: And you’ll, you’ll like hum a melody over the top.

Ozzy Osbourne: Yeah. Yeah.

Billy Morrison: Okay. Okay.

Photo: SRO PR

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