GUNS N’ ROSES’ DUFF MCKAGAN On How He Ended Up Playing On OZZY’s New Album

Duff McKagan

During an appearance on Jonesy’s Jukebox, GUNS N’ ROSES bassist Duff McKagan talked about he ended up playing on Ozzy Osbourne‘s upcoming new album Ordinary Man.

Asked how he ended up on the album, McKagan responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth.net): “The session I got called to do. I’d been playing these gigs with Chad Smith, the drummer from the CHILI PEPPERS — these wild cover-band things. Like, we’d play VAN HALEN with Taylor Hawkins singing and Mike McCready playing guitar. And we played Montana. But playing with Chad, playing bass, he’s such an aggressive drummer, and our styles are pretty similar. And we love playing with each other as a rhythm section.

He continued: “This guy Andrew Watt called. I think it was a Saturday, and I happened to be in LA. He said, ‘Do you have some days this week in the daytime? I need to write an Ozzy record. We have four days to do it.’

“So, we showed up at Andrew‘s studio. Everything was kind of set up – Chad‘s drum kit was set up. And it was basically one of those things: ‘Who’s got a riff?’ And it was really inspired. The three of us – Andrew Watt and Chad and myself – we’d never written together, and that can go sideways in a hot second.

“But it didn’t. The first riff that we threw down… Mick Bob was there, my tech. He’s, like, ‘You know Ozzy likes THE BEATLES. Make sure there’s some BEATLES in there.’ So we just [approached it like], ‘Who’s got a riff, man?’

“And we just threw down in four days and wrote nine songs. ‘Ordinary Man,’ the ballad, with Elton John on it, is one of ’em. And ‘Straight to Hell’ [was another one]. I think we wrote and recorded nine songs in four days, and the sounds and everything, which is perfect. And that was it. We were done.”

Ozzy came and Ozzy just loved it,” he added. “He just came in and started writing words and laid down the vocals. And it was kind of like that.

“There was definitely urgency to the whole situation. We had so much time to do it, which was only four days… So, it just happened to work out great. And I think the record is really, really good.”

Ozzy Osbourne will release Ordinary Man, on February 21.

Marking his first new solo music in almost 10 years, the album has been preceded by the release of two singles, the No. 1 rock track “Under The Graveyard”, which was followed by “Straight To Hell” featuring GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Slash. The album’s title track will be available instantly with any pre-order of the album.

Ozzy Osbourne Ordinary Man