About that unreleased Vai / Ozzy album...
Well...Steve Vai inadvertently caused a bit of a hullabaloo in heavy metal circles this past week. In an interview published by Eonmusic in the U.K., Vai discussed his newly released Vai/Gash album, a previously unreleased collaboration with the late Johnny ‘Gash’ Sombrotto recorded in the early 1990's. Vai happened to mention that he also recorded another unreleased collaborative album in the '90's -- with none other than Ozzy Osbourne.
Wait...what?!?
Here is what Vai told Eonmusic about this:
"I'm sitting on a whole Ozzy record, and it's like the Gash record - not 'like' the Gash record - but it's a project that I recorded that's sitting on the shelf. I don't have any control over it or rights to it, obviously, but we did record some pretty good stuff. The interesting thing about that stuff we recorded from a guitar perspective is all of my rhythm guitar parts, I use an octave divider [guitar effect], and that record doesn't sound like anything else...It was really just to write some songs for Ozzy's record that he would then take and go use for his record, and whoever he was working with on the record would record it. So I thought; "yeah, that'd be great. I'd love to do that", but Ozzy and I got carried away because we were having a lot of fun, and we ended up recording a lot of stuff. And then we started scheming; "hey, let's make a new record!", and all that was fine and good, and we got excited about it until the hammer came down, and they basically said; "what are you doing? No, you've just got to take a song from Vai and finish your record. We're already into it for this much money, and Vai is expensive"...One of the songs was 'Danger Zone'. I had already written it, and it was already done - it was a Gash track - and I thought; "well, maybe he'd like this", and I reworked it a bit, but it's on the shelf. There's also a song called 'Dyin' Day' that's on my 'Fire Garden' album, because that song originally had lyrics, and that was one. There was some real, real heavy stuff because, as I mentioned, I used an octave divider on everything, and that was a conscious effort."
Pretty intriguing, right? Imagine an album recorded by the veteran hard rock guitar virtuoso Vai and the inimitable heavy metal legend that is Ozzy, and it "doesn't sound like anything else", but has just been sitting on a shelf unheard for over a quarter-century! That is truly the stuff of rock and roll myths and legends.
However, Vai quickly took to social media to clarify his statements about this album's supposed existence. On his official Facebook page, Vai explained:
"In a recent interview I spoke a bit carelessly about “Sitting on an entire Ozzy album” and then the clickbait headlines went viral.
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. 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."
OK...so, in other words, the unreleased recordings were merely demos, instead of finished recordings or fully-formed songs. But still...Wouldn't it be neat to hear a "whole record" of those "bumpy road map" demos? Based on Vai's description of the recordings, such an album may not be very commercially viable (no pun intended). However, many of us -- especially fans of Ozzy's Ozzmosis album -- would love to hear these demos at some point. Wouldn't they at least serve as some very interesting bonus tracks on a deluxe reissue of that 1995 album?
No one should get their hopes up about these recordings seeing the light of day any time soon, if ever. But, congratulations, Mr. Vai; while you were "speaking a bit carelessly", I believe you have added another mysterious album to the category of Unreleased Albums With Mythic Status.
Wait...what?!?
Here is what Vai told Eonmusic about this:
"I'm sitting on a whole Ozzy record, and it's like the Gash record - not 'like' the Gash record - but it's a project that I recorded that's sitting on the shelf. I don't have any control over it or rights to it, obviously, but we did record some pretty good stuff. The interesting thing about that stuff we recorded from a guitar perspective is all of my rhythm guitar parts, I use an octave divider [guitar effect], and that record doesn't sound like anything else...It was really just to write some songs for Ozzy's record that he would then take and go use for his record, and whoever he was working with on the record would record it. So I thought; "yeah, that'd be great. I'd love to do that", but Ozzy and I got carried away because we were having a lot of fun, and we ended up recording a lot of stuff. And then we started scheming; "hey, let's make a new record!", and all that was fine and good, and we got excited about it until the hammer came down, and they basically said; "what are you doing? No, you've just got to take a song from Vai and finish your record. We're already into it for this much money, and Vai is expensive"...One of the songs was 'Danger Zone'. I had already written it, and it was already done - it was a Gash track - and I thought; "well, maybe he'd like this", and I reworked it a bit, but it's on the shelf. There's also a song called 'Dyin' Day' that's on my 'Fire Garden' album, because that song originally had lyrics, and that was one. There was some real, real heavy stuff because, as I mentioned, I used an octave divider on everything, and that was a conscious effort."
Pretty intriguing, right? Imagine an album recorded by the veteran hard rock guitar virtuoso Vai and the inimitable heavy metal legend that is Ozzy, and it "doesn't sound like anything else", but has just been sitting on a shelf unheard for over a quarter-century! That is truly the stuff of rock and roll myths and legends.
However, Vai quickly took to social media to clarify his statements about this album's supposed existence. On his official Facebook page, Vai explained:
"In a recent interview I spoke a bit carelessly about “Sitting on an entire Ozzy album” and then the clickbait headlines went viral.
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. 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."
OK...so, in other words, the unreleased recordings were merely demos, instead of finished recordings or fully-formed songs. But still...Wouldn't it be neat to hear a "whole record" of those "bumpy road map" demos? Based on Vai's description of the recordings, such an album may not be very commercially viable (no pun intended). However, many of us -- especially fans of Ozzy's Ozzmosis album -- would love to hear these demos at some point. Wouldn't they at least serve as some very interesting bonus tracks on a deluxe reissue of that 1995 album?
No one should get their hopes up about these recordings seeing the light of day any time soon, if ever. But, congratulations, Mr. Vai; while you were "speaking a bit carelessly", I believe you have added another mysterious album to the category of Unreleased Albums With Mythic Status.
Oops! A correction has been issued. https://t.co/eisDLMh6ZU
— Rarebird Nine (@rarebirdnine) February 24, 2023
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