Zakk Wylde And Ozzy Osbourne Were Planning New Music Together: “He Was Texting Me, ‘Zakk, Let’s Do Another Record.'”

Zakk Wylde has revealed that he and late legend Ozzy Osbourne were planning to record a new album together prior to the Black Sabbath frontman’s death on July 22 this year.

Speaking to local New Jersey site NJ, Wylde being a Jersey boy himself, the Black Label Society singer reflected at length on his frequent collaborations with Ozzy, including his farewell concert in his native Birmingham, UK, on July 5.

“Just the fact that he willed himself to do that thing,” Wylde said. “Whatever things that we’ve run into, any obstacles or whatever, it’s always just a speed bump and we’ll get through it. So I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, this is the last time I’m going to see Oz.’ I just figured we’ll do the gig, and then who knows? You always stay positive on all this stuff.”

Wylde and Osbourne were frequent creative partners over the years, with Wylde replacing outgoing guitarist Jake E. Lee in 1987 and going to perform on No Rest for the Wicked (1988), No More Tears (1991), and Ozzmosis (1995) before a brief interregnum until 2001, when Wylde returned for Down To Earth. Since then, their collaborations were steady if infrequent, up until Ozzy’s passing.

Wylde went on to describe that Ozzy was at least ruminating on making an entire album together. “He was texting me, ‘Zakk, let’s do another record. Because I really loved it when you were going through your Allman Brothers, Skynyrd phase when we did No More Tears, it’s heavy but it’s more melodic, it’s not pummeling heavy,’” Wylde said. “So I said, ‘Alright Oz, whatever you want.’”

Whether such plans ever went beyond a few text messages back and forth is anyone’s guess at this stage, but this another one to pop in the ever-growing What Might Have Been file.