Ozzy Osbourne Already Working on 'Ordinary Man' Follow-Up
Even though released his 12th album, Ordinary Man, just a few days ago, he says there’s no rest for the wicked.
“I am making another album because while I can’t tour, I can make music,” the Prince of Darkness said in a AMA session. “What I learned from Ordinary Man, it got the juices flowing again. People say they write the best songs when they’re unhappy, and I was unhappy last year.”
Osbourne had to cancel all of his 2019 tour dates after a series of health setbacks forced him off the road. In late 2018, he contracted a potentially fatal staph infection and he suffered a serious fall in the middle of the night in early 2019 that was so bad he required months of painful surgery. “I was in agony beyond anything I ever experienced before in my life,” he told Rolling Stone. “It was awful.”
Recently, he revealed that he had also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In the middle of all of this, he was invited to record a guest appearance on Post Malone’s “Take What You Want” and found the experience so invigorating that he recruited the song’s producer, Andrew Watt, to helm the writing and recording sessions that yielded Ordinary Man. The record features contributions from Elton John and Post Malone, as well as members of Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine.
The former Black Sabbath frontman first revealed his plan to cut an immediate follow-up LP in an interview with iHeart Radio. “I’m hoping that next month I’ll go and do another album with Andrew Watt],” he said, according to Metal Hammer. “I might as well, while I’m not doing gigs.”
The vocalist recently canceled the upcoming North American leg of his No More Tours 2 trek so he could receive treatment from a specialist in Switzerland. He nevertheless will be making an appearance at South by Southwest, where a new documentary about him is getting its premiere. In the AMA, he said his travel plans also include a visit to Panama. “Dunno when I’m coming back!” he joked. “Been going nuts sitting on my ass all the time.”
