It’s been one hell of a year for Ozzy Osbourne. In early 2020, rock’s Prince of Darkness revealed that he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. While this resulted in tour postponements, it did nothing to slow down Ordinary Man, his latest studio album and The Pit’s #1 album of 2020. Now, Ozzy has released a new animated video for a song from that album, “It’s A Raid,” with rapper Post Malone starring alongside the heavy metal madman.
Perhaps the first thing we think watching the “It’s A Raid!” video is wow, the animation’s really solid! Big bands often have a hard time with cartoon videos, which usually err on the cheap, easily-slapped-together side of things. But Ozzy and Post are shown in all their glory here as they run from the cops and maybe blow a rail or two. Meanwhile, the song’s theme of having to outrun the cops provides the kind of storyline every heavy metal fan dreams of in their wilder moments.
Check out “It’s A Raid” below:
Ordinary Man might just be the beginning for Ozzy. The singer revealed that he’s already in the process of recording another studio album with producer Andrew Watt, which will feature some big guns as Ozzy’s backing band and guest stars.
“We’re about halfway through,” said Watt in a recent interview. “But, you know, it’s been hard with COVID and everything to keep him safe. We all test every day before we work and it’s just me, Ozzy and my engineer. So it’s taken a little longer this time, but it’s cool because the last one was made in this, like, swift love affair of passion, like, ‘Oh my God, this is incredible!’…But this time everyone’s moving a little slower and we’re taking a little more time. And the songs, there’s some songs on there that are like eight or nine minutes long that are these really crazy journeys. I’m really excited about it.”
Watt went on to reveal that playing with Ozzy on this record will be Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, and Red Hot Chili Peppers percussionist Chad Smith.
“There’s a bunch of people involved,” says Watt. “I can’t say for sure until the end, but I started doing a bunch of basic tracks with Chad and Robert Trujillo, who used to play in Ozzy’s band. And Taylor Hawkins also came in and played a bunch on the record as well, which adds a different flair – it kind of harkened back to Ozzy’s ‘80s era, in a great way. And I think it’s so cool for a rock fan to be able to listen to half an album with Chad Smith on drums, and then you flip it over and you get to hear Taylor Hawkins.”
More on Ozzy’s new album as we hear it.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
