Ozzy Osbourne regrets not exploring music outside his genre

Los Angeles, Aug. 13 (IANS): The legendary Ozzy Osbourne feels remorse for not making “more varied” music.

While he is proud of the way Black Sabbath made heavy metal “big”, the rockstar said that he would have liked to have explored outside of the genre and produced some songs that were less “aggressive”, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“You know what, I would have liked to have been a little more varied,” he told The Sun newspaper when asked if he wished he had ever moved away from heavy metal.

“Black Sabbath music is very aggressive even if some of it is foot-tapping.”

“But we fought the f****** world to make it big. But mind you, it’s a good thing we didn’t get our royalties when we were 23 because I would have f***** myself into another planet.”

The 73-year-old singer said that there are some collaborations he’d loved to have been able to secure. He said, “John Lennon if he was alive. (I’m a) giant f****** Beatles fan. And I’d have to have Jimi Hendrix, right?”

He then reflected on how he’d have liked to have done more with Randy Rhoads, who played on Ozzy’s first two solo albums, ‘Blizzard of Oz’ and ‘Diary of a Madman’ before dying in a light aircraft crash in 1982 aged just 25.

Ozzy said: “Randy was so good, so f***ing clever. He’s up there, man.”

The “Changes” singer’s upcoming new album, “Patient Number 9”, features a long list of guest artists, including his former Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Zakk Wylde, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction’s Chris Chaney.

He was “blown away” by all the musicians.

He said: “I’ve never been someone who has guests on albums. You can’t reproduce what they do when you’re playing live but I’m blown away by those people on my record.”

The veteran rocker doesn’t think so many collaborations would have happened if it wasn’t for the pandemic.