Ever since it was revealed that Ozzy Osbourne had a new album in the works – one that would include Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and many more – the entire guitardom has been eagerly awaiting its much-anticipated arrival.
The recent release of the album’s title track – Patient Number 9, featuring Beck – arrived with the long-awaited news that the record will arrive in its entirety on September 9, bringing to a close months of restless speculation.
During these months, those involved in the project have kept us all on tenterhooks by drip-feeding the public tasty tidbits about Patient Number 9, from an Instagram post that announced work had concluded to a Chad Smith personnel reveal.
There’s still a ways to go yet, but lucky for us Zakk Wylde – Ozzy loyalist who has once again teamed up with Osbourne for the album – has shared even more insight into the upcoming album, saying the overall record is “slamming”.
When asked by Eon Music if he could reveal anything about the album, Wylde responded, “The album is slammin'… and then Ozzy’s singing [is] great, and I get to put my little fiddly-diddly bits all over it.
“And on top of it, being on an album with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Lord [Tony] Iommi... I mean, if you would have told me when I was 15 years old that I’m going to be on a record with Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, I would have been; 'Forget it!' It’s a huge honor, man.”
The Black Label Society axeman also briefly dipped into the record’s writing process, revealing the entire record was written by Osbourne and producer Andrew Watt, with whom Ozzy worked for 2020’s Ordinary Man.
Wylde continued, “Him and Andrew [Watt, producer] wrote the record. Actually, Andrew came up to the Black Vatican, my studio, just going over certain parts where Andrew was like, ‘No Zakk, I did it like this,’ or whatever. So, yeah, it was a blast.”
It’s not the first time we’ve been gifted with behind-the-scenes intel from the Patient Number 9 crew. In October last year, Wylde himself told MusicRadar that he would be “playing rhythm guitar for my heroes”.
Those heroes, as it was revealed around that same time, include Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Toni Iommi.
The list of music A-Listers was subsequently expanded thanks to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, who revealed the album also features the contributions of Mike McCready and Josh Homme.
This was, of course, all confirmed when the album’s release date was announced, alongside the classically Osbourne lead single.
Patient Number 9 is available to preorder now via Epic Records ahead of its release on September 9.
