Ozzy Osbourne was planning to start work on a new album shortly before his shock death in July.
The Black Sabbath frontman, 76, passed away over the summer – just weeks after he got the group back together for a massive reunion gig in his hometown of Birmingham, UK – and it’s now been revealed he was hoping to follow up his final concert with a new record and he’d already asked his longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde to join him in the studio.
Wylde told NJ.com: “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.’
“So I said: ‘Alright Oz, whatever you want’.”
The album never got off the ground but Osbourne did finish work on his autobiography Last Rites and a BBC documentary.
Wylde added: “We did the show, he ended up finishing his book, they did the documentary, and then he was like: ‘All right, I’m out of here’. He finished everything he had to do and then he was like: ‘All right, I’m done’.”
The rocker also spoke about his final performance with the music legend at the Black Sabbath reunion gig, insisting he had no idea it would their last ever time sharing a stage together: “Just the fact that he willed himself to do that thing. 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 …
“I wasn’t thinking when we were doing the show that this was the last time I’m going to be doing Mama, I’m Coming Home with the boss or this is the last time I’m going to play Crazy Train with him or anything like that.
“I was just going: ‘Let’s do this and let’s have a good time’, like always.”