In a new interview with Dean Delray, guitar virtuoso Steve Vai shared how he ditched his aim to get paid the most. Having worked with Ozzy Osbourne for a song, it was a ‘publishing demon’ that ultimately changed his mind. Vai recalled the incident:
“I’ve gone through various psychological changes regarding the ‘publishing demon.’ At one point, I was very protective about who was writing what. But that dissolved, and a lot of that happened when I was working with Ozzy.”
Collaborating with Ozzy in the mid-90s resulted in the creation of the song ‘My Little Man.’
Reflecting on his time working with Ozzy, Vai shared how the experience played a role in freeing him from his fixation on publishing and writer rights, stating:
“Ozzy and I were supposed to write this stuff. A musician came in who was working with us, and he started submitting ideas. And I was naive, and I said to Ozzy, ‘What’s the situation here? I was under the impression that you and I are writing this.’ And Ozzy, in his innocent brilliance, said, ‘I don’t give a motherf*ck if he comes down here and writes something, we just need a good song.’ And that was the end of my publishing demon.”
Did Osbourne and Vai Collaborate On A Whole Album?
One sentence Vai said in an interview made the fans think that he had enough material recorded with Osbourne for a full album, which was later clarified by the virtuoso.
Initially, the rocker had mentioned to Eonmusic that he and the Black Sabbath frontman collaborated to co-write a song for Osbourne’s 1995 album ‘Ozzmosis,’ resulting in ‘My Little Man,’ where he also mentioned that he was ‘sitting on a whole Ozzy record.’ He went on to explain that he couldn’t take any action with the material because he didn’t possess the rights to it.
Vai then provided clarification regarding his earlier statements suggesting the existence of an unreleased album recorded with Ozzy Osbourne in the 1990s. The virtuoso posted a detailed statement on social media, clarifying that such an album does not actually exist. He admitted to speaking ‘carelessly’ in his initial comments about his collaborative sessions with Osbourne:
“To clarify, Ozzy and I got together back around 96 and spent some time trying to come up with some potential songs for an album that he already had half recorded. That record later came out as ‘Ozzmosis.’ We demoed a handful of tracks and then there was a bunch of tracks I built for him to check out. He ended up picking one song to use on his album and that’s ‘My Little Man.’ It was re-recorded with his band, and it came out great.”
He then clarified what he meant to say earlier:
“Only one other demoed track from those sessions had an Ozzy scratch vocal on it and I handed in all the Master demo tapes to the label and kept safety tapes of the tracks I personally built. All in all, there was (is) enough music for a whole record, but those songs would require re-recording. The demos are bumpy road maps but not the goal. I, like many Ozzy fans, would love if there was a secret hidden Ozzy album somewhere, only to be revealed to our surprised ears at a future time, but it wouldn’t come from those sessions. So sorry for the confusion.”
You can hear the recent interview below.
