- ANDREW: It's funny, I had this conversation with Elton
when I got to work with him, 'cause I asked him, like,
"How do you write your piano parts
to, like, this lyric page that you're staring at?"
And he was, like, "It's ordained. It just comes from somewhere else.
It's given to me."
And... I was, I got chills on my body,
because I have been saying that my whole life.
I'm having conversations with him sitting with the guitar,
and suddenly this little thing comes out,
and then... a month later it's on the radio
and people love it and it's a hit.
And I don't know where it's coming from.
I'm sitting there with Ozzy,
and one of the first songs we, we did was this kind of piano ballad song.
This illustrious man that's lived... so many lives over,
should have been dead such a long time ago.
If he ever does, he's not gonna go out easy.
He's gonna go out like Tony... Montana.
And so I came up with the line, "I don't want to die an ordinary man."
And I swear I am not making any of this up.
He comes over the next day, and he handed me a lyric sheet,
the first line that said on the lyric sheet was...
"I'm just an ordinary man."
He came up with this concept, "ordinary man"
and I came up with this concept, "I don't want to die an ordinary man"
on the same night.
So, he liked the concept.
Ozzy... Osbourne.
- He went to the studio having no idea who any of the people in that room were.
A connection and an instant trust was built.
So, I called Andrew and I said, "Will you do an album with my dad?"
And he said, "No."
- I didn't know if I could do it not because I didn't want to do it,
because I didn't think I was worthy of doing it.
Ozzy is the most character in a voice I've ever heard.
When he sings, you know it's him.
The most legendary rock singer of all time.
- I don't know how that little... does it.
He... is one of the great producers of today.
He's an unbelievable writer.
- Um, I hate doing that.
- Our first cut was "Let Me Love You," and then we did "Wolves" for Selena Gomez.
"It Ain't Me," "Señorita," 5 Seconds of Summer,
The Chainsmokers, Zac Brown Band.
- He's one of these little... that's just good at everything.
He's probably got a... 10-inch dick.
- I think Andrew was very used to working with pop music people.
I love pop music and I'm not putting it down,
but what you're good at isn't always what you love.
And I think that Andrew loves rock music.
- ANDREW: My dad always played me music growing up.
He played me The Beatles, he played me The Who,
he played me Zeppelin, and he played my Black Sabbath.
And I was scared the first time I heard Sabbath, it's evil-sounding stuff.
- You know, if, if you've love something from a child... musically,
and then you get to work with that person,
it's just like the biggest rush ever.
- ANDREW: When I, when I look down at my hands, I see Ozzy...
Paul McCartney, "Blackbird,"
David Bowie, Prince.
So, my guitar hand, my right hand.
And then Bowie again, the lightning bolt,
George Harrison, when I play slide.
And New York, which is my baby, my home.
- SHARON: This little punk kid, shaved...
Silly hairdo, comes in, and I'm like, "Oh, here we go."
And I'm thinking it's gonna be, like, he's gonna come with all this pop stuff.
- ANDREW: I love pop music, I love making it.
But I'm, I'm a rocker, it's what I love.
My first call was Chad from Chili Peppers.
I was like, "They just asked me to make an Ozzy album."
He was, like, "Why don't we do it? Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it."
I was like, "All right. Who should we have play bass?"
So, I think about it in my head, of my favorite rock bass players
that would bring something that I would want to work with.
And so I called Duff up, who's a friend as well.
I said, "You know, they asked me to make this Ozzy album, Chad wants to do it."
"We're doing it. When should we...?" They were, they were both so...
They gave me the confidence, both those guys.
This all does not feel real to me. I mean, even this, I'm like...
trying to talk to you, but I see plaques for my favorite Black Sabbath albums.
I feel like this is some dream that I am going to get woken up from.
So, the "cry for help" on the last take, use everything else from this take.
Ozzy, you're... killing it. This one's good.
When you're working with someone...
and you're writing with an artist, artist to artist, creative to creative,
you open up on such a vulnerable level.
And so, we're having this conversation,
and... it just comes out, "I don't wanna die an ordinary man."
That line, so what's that about? "Ozzy, what does that mean to you?"
"It means that I know I'm coming towards the end.
And I'm looking back on my life, looking back on my family.
And I'm, I'm gonna talk about it, and I'm gonna be vulnerable.
I'm gonna address the fact that this is not forever.
But the music's forever.
- ANDREW: It starts with me sitting down
with my engineer Paul, who's at the computer,
who's sitting on the couch, and Chad's on the drums,
Duff's on the bass, I'm on the guitar.
We're sitting together and we're making a progression of chords,
a body of music, something that feels like it could be a verse.
Then from there, me, and the artist, in this case Ozzy...
- I can't do it on my home. I don't play an instrument.
- ANDREW: ...and whoever else I'm co-writing with,
in this case, Ali Tamposi, get together.
- And then it's just a melody fest.
And then we'll start talking concepts.
- ANDREW: Then we sit and we write lyrics
that sound like what would fit into those melodies,
and it's may the best man win.
You know, everyone's saying, "This line,"
"No, this line," "No, this line," "No, this line," or "That's great."
And obviously the artist is the ultimate judge, Ozzy would be,
"I love that. That line's great."
Or he would say something, and we'd be, like, "We love it!"
Then from there the vocal is recorded and polished.
Then we add all the finishing touches,
be it guitar part, keyboard parts, or reduction...
- There are some days you just are able to tap into that channel
and it runs through you.
When Ozzy and Andrew met,
I think they saw a lot of themselves in each other.
- I think it was at a time where both of them, Andrew and my Dad,
were in a very transitional period in their lives.
And my dad had weeks of being himself again.
It was almost like oxygen to somebody who was suffocating.
- You have to contribute your art and throw the paint at the canvas,
and then you have to have those moments
where you're, like, "OK, is this good enough?
Will people like this? Is this what's right for the artist?"
And my check point was always,
"What would the 12-year-old die-hard rock fan that played guitar to the mirror
say about this music?"
And that boy would be very happy right now.
- Yeah!