“I was playing a U2 song, and I hear drums behind me. I turn around and it was him. He and I jammed without speaking for 30 minutes”: Ozzy Osbourne collaborator Andrew Watt on the pop star who helped kickstart his production career

You may recognize Andrew Watt as the super-producer behind a host of recent rock albums from heavy hitters such as Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, and the Rolling Stones.

However, Watt first made waves in the pop world, and one of the acts he worked with in those early days helped pave his path to the upper echelons of the production world.

“I was in Dublin, and I always would stay a little longer on stage during sound check to play a little bit and listen to the venue and stuff like that,” Watt tells And The Writer Is… podcast, as he looks back on an early tour playing guitar for Cody Simpson – who, at that time, was supporting Justin Bieber.

“I remember I was in Dublin. I was playing a U2 song or something like that, and I hear drums behind me, and I turn around, and it was Justin, and he and I just jammed without speaking for probably 30 minutes.

“We were just playing and doing all this kind of stuff. That's how we became friends. So we hung out a lot after that. We would just kind of make music together, jam, hang out, do all kinds of stuff, travel the world together, and then we naturally started making music together, and that's how my career as a pop producer really started.”

Andrew Watt | How He Became the Go-To Producer for the World’s Biggest Artists - YouTube

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In a recent Guitar World interview, Watt discussed his pivot from pop to rock – and why working with Ozzy was a massive turning point in his career.

“Rock is something that I love – it’s the music that speaks to me the most,” he divulged. “But as I found my way into this business, I had these gigs playing for amazing pop artists and ended up writing their songs, and that became the thing tat I was doing: making pop music that had guitar in it.

“When the Ozzy thing came around, I was so excited at the chance to do it, but also kind of doubting myself. Like, ‘These aren’t the records I really make!’ But Duff McKagan and Chad Smith, who were friends at that point, were like, ‘Come on man, you gotta make this. Of course you can do it. It’s everything you love!’”

The Grammy-winning producer and guitarist recently participated in Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne's final show, Back to the Beginning, joining the likes of Steven Tyler, Ronnie Wood, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello, Rudy Sarzo, Travis Barker, and Chad Smith to perform The Train Kept A-Rollin' and Walk This Way / Whole Lotta Love.