Steve Vai Clarifies Comments on Ozzy Osbourne Album Sessions

UPDATE: Steve Vai has clarified his feedback surrounding his earlier work with Ozzy Osbourne, revealing that whereas there was sufficient materials for a full album, the songs had been by no means accomplished.

He writes in a social media posting: “In a recent interview I spoke a bit carelessly about ‘Sitting on an entire Ozzy album’ and then the clickbait headlines went viral. To clarify, Ozzy and I got together back around 96 and spent some time trying to come up with some potential songs for an album that he already had half recorded. That record later came out as ‘Ozzmosis.’ We demoed a handful of tracks and then there was a bunch of tracks I built for him to check out. He ended up picking one song to use on his album and that’s ‘My Little Man.’ It was re-recorded with his band, and it came out great. Only one other demoed track from those sessions had an Ozzy scratch vocal on it and I handed in all the Master demo tapes to the label and kept safety tapes of the tracks I personally built.

All in all, there was (is) enough music for a whole record, but those songs would require re-recording. The demos are bumpy road maps but not the goal. I, like many Ozzy fans, would love if there was a secret hidden Ozzy album somewhere, only to be revealed to our surprised ears at a future time, but it wouldn’t come from those sessions. So sorry for the confusion.

While guitar great Steve Vai worked with Ozzy Osbourne on the song “My Little Man” for the Prince of Darkness’ 1995 album Ozzmosis, their working relationship went so well that they actually completed enough material for a full album, reveals Vai.

Speaking with eonmusic, Vai says, “I’m sitting on a complete Ozzy file,” then confirming that it’s shelved as he doesn’t have any control or rights to it. That said, the guitarist recalls the experience saying, “We did file some fairly great things. The attention-grabbing factor about that stuff we recorded from a guitar perspective is all of my rhythm guitar components, I take advantage of an octave divider, and that file would not sound like the rest.”

While diving deeper into how they came to record so much material, Vai recalls, “Ozzy had recorded about half of his file for the file firm, and Sharon and the label needed to get him along with some completely different songwriters to simply get some extra songs. So I used to be one of many ones that they needed to get along with. It was actually simply to jot down some songs for Ozzy’s file that he would then take and go use for his file and whoever he was working with on the file would file it.”

“So I assumed, ‘Yeah, that’d be nice. I’d love to try this,'” Vai continues. “But Ozzy and I bought carried away as a result of we had been having lots of enjoyable, and we ended up recording lots of stuff. And then we began scheming, ‘Hey, let’s make a brand new file!’ All that was wonderful and good and we bought enthusiastic about it till the hammer got here down. They mainly stated, ‘What are you doing? No you have simply bought to take a track from Vai and end your file. We’re already into it for this a lot cash, and Vai is pricey.'”

In the end, “My Little Man” was the Vai contribution to the Ozzmosis record, but he reveals in his chat some of the other tracks that were under consideration. “One of the songs was ‘Danger Zone,’ I had already written it, and it was already finished – it was a Gash monitor – and I assumed, ‘Well, perhaps he’d like this,’ and I reworked it a bit, but it surely’s on the shelf.” Vai also reveals that “Dyin’ Day’ was a track that is on his Fire Garden album that was into consideration as properly.

He continued, “There was some real, real heavy stuff because, as I mentioned, I used an octave divider on everything, and that’s was a conscious effort. I thought, ‘Okay, you’re going to work with Ozzy, and all these incredible guitar players have played with Ozzy; what are you going to do?’ I was not going to be conventional. Yeah, that’s not me as you know, but I had to be accessible, so I thought, ‘I’m going to use an octave divider on everything.’ I mean, all the rhythm.”

Both artists have gone on to thrive within the time since. Vai most just lately issued his Inviolate album final yr, and has a Vai/Gash album set for 2023. Meanwhile, Ozzy launched the star-studded album, Patient Number 9, final yr.

Ozzy Osbourne, “My Little Man”