Ozzy Osbourne Wants to Make Another Solo Album

The name Adam Wakeman (top, far left) may not jump out at most Ozzy fans the way, say, the name Zakk Wylde does — but the keyboardist has part of The Ozz Man’s solo band since 2004, recorded and co-wrote a substantial amount of the material on 2010’s Scream, and has been touring with Black Sabbath as part of their ongoing farewell tour. Also, his dad, Rick Wakeman, is Ozzy’s former keyboardist. So while Wakeman may not the be the most publicly beloved member of Ozzy’s current troupe, there’s no denying that he’s in deep with the Osbournes.

So you can probably take it with more than a grain of salt of when he tells eonmusic…

“Well [Black Sabbath are] finishing [their farewell tour] on February 4th, and then we’ll see what happens with Ozzy after that. I mean, he wants to do another tour, he wants to do another album, but there’s going to be a period of time when he needs a rest, so yeah, hopefully we’ll be back out.”

There is going to be a period of time when Ozzy needs a rest, and that period is called the 21st century (and probably a substantial chunk of the 90s, too). What I’m saying is that Ozzy needs to make another solo album like Mötley Crüe need to release another ‘Greatest Hits’ collection. All anyone remembers about Scream is that Zakk Wylde wasn’t on it. All anyone remembers about Down to Earth was that Zakk Wylde was pissed about Dave Grohl potentially writing a song for the album. And all anyone remembers about Black Rain is that they completely forgot about Black Rain until I mentioned it just now.

I guess this brings us back to the question we always have with legacy acts, which is this: is it really necessary for them to release new material to do a tour? Wouldn’t the Ozzy faithful turn out in droves to see him warble through “Crazy Train” regardless? The only benefit to having a new single Ozzy is obligated to perform live would be having a pee break for the crowd built into the set.

In any case, if Ozzy does make another solo album, I hope he gets some better writers than he used on the last three. The funniest quote in the Wakeman interview comes when he asserts that “one of the great things about Ozzy, is he reinvents himself, and he works with different producers and musicians.” Time to prove it: Kevin Churko produced and co-wrote both Black Rain and Scream. Give someone else a shot, see if they can figure out a way to let Ozzy (hopefully, finally) conclude his career on a high point.

I leave you with this appropriately-titled track from Scream, which Wakeman co-wrote:

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