Andrew Watt opens up about the loss of his friend and collaborator Ozzy Osbourne.
The 34-year-old songwriter and producer, who worked on Osbourne’s last two albums: 2020. ordinary man and 2022 Patient number 9 – and was the musical director for Ozzy’s 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame performance, called the Black Sabbath frontman’s passing “a very, very big loss.”
“We made two albums together and talked every day for seven years straight,” Watt said. People Magazine. “He’s one of my best friends, the funniest guy on the planet and my teacher.”
“I’m thinking about it every minute of every day. It comes to me in my dreams. It’s something I’ll never get over. Somehow I’ll learn to live with it, and I’m trying really hard, but it’s still very fresh,” he added.
Watt recalled spending time with Osbourne the night before her final Black Sabbath show at England’s Villa Park on July 5. “He wanted me to come to the hotel and listen to some music we were working on,” he said.
“We ate curry together, which he wasn’t supposed to eat because it was bad for his voice the day before the show, but he loved curry more than anything.”
The last conversation Watt had with Osbourne was the day before his death. “We were texting the same way we always talked. I think he said, ‘Hey, shit, where are you?’ “I was in France at the time,” he recalled.
For the three-time Grammy winner, Osbourne’s death is “a great loss to the world.” Watt added: “I feel like the world is less great without him. He was one of those people who was just a staple of joy and laughter, had the biggest smile ever and was so funny. It’s really hard right now.”
