![]() ![]() But we kept what we thought Ozzy could get away with, without raising too many eyebrows.” Especially on this record: we didn’t go out on a limb and we didn’t try to make it commercial. “Or I’ll write something simple that I think he might like, and he’ll go, ‘That’s pop!’ So it’s a weird little area: it can’t be too commercial sounding and it can’t be too weird. Are you on acid or something? This isn’t Frank Zappa.’ ![]() Sometimes I’ll write something weird that I think he’ll like, and he’ll say, ‘That’s too weird. On this record he sang a bluesier style than I thought he would. “He almost always does something different from what I expect. I put about 12 songs down on tape like that, and when Ozzy got out of the Betty Ford, I said, ‘Here ya go! Here’s what I’ve got so far.’ And I’d say half of it ended up on the album.”ĭoes Ozzy interpret your songs in a way similar to how you originally heard them? “Then I wrote the drum and bass parts I had in mind. But I wrote the riff and came up with a chorus, verse, bridge and solo sections. I didn’t write melodies or lyrics, because Ozzy is bound to change things. “On The Ultimate Sin, while Ozzy was in the Betty Ford, I got a drum machine, one of those mini studios, a bass from Charvel – a really shitty one – and I wrote more or less entire songs. Everybody contributed a little bit, so the songs didn’t come out the way I imagined they would. “So I’d present something, and they’d fight, debate, say it sucked or whatever. Actually, I didn’t mind it when we did it as a four-piece, but then they schmaltzed it up with all the strings, and I hated it. “I hated the strings on Bark at the Moon. I’d go, ‘I don’t really like this,’ and they’d go, ‘Well, what do you know?’ And I’d go, ‘I don’t know anything.’ I didn’t argue too much if I didn’t like the way something was coming out. “Bob Daisley would change a part here or there, and Ozzy might change a part, too, but that was it, really. But when I write a riff, I also write the verse and chorus and everything around it. I’d just play him riffs, and if he liked the riff, then the whole band would work on it. “On Bark at the Moon, I approached him really cautiously, because I was the new guy and I could be out at any second. How easy or difficult is it to present material to Ozzy? On Bark at the Moon, I approached Ozzy really cautiously, because I was the new guy and I could be out at any second “Most of the music was mine: Rock ’n’ Roll Rebel, Bark at the Moon, Now You See It (Now You Don’t), Waiting for Darkness and Slow Down were mine.” How much input did you have on Bark at the Moon ? So I was used to being in control of the music in a band. “It was like a Van Halen/Roth thing: Steve had control over the clothing and the show, and I had control over the music. ![]()
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