More than five decades ago, Ozzy Osbourne recorded in only a few hours alongside Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Tony Iommi the groundbreaking Black Sabbath debut album, which was the birth of Heavy Metal. At the time, there were not many different things you could do inside a studio and he had to really sing and the other musicians really play their instruments. Decades later the scenario is different with many different digital methods which can be used for years already, which can improve voices and instruments.
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However, the music business might change forever with the rise of artificial intelligence which is now so evolved that it can even create new music from scratch. During a conversation for The Osbournes podcast with his family, the Black Sabbath vocalist gave his opinion on AI used in music (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).
Ozzy Osbourne gives his opinion on AI used in music
“I haven’t considered it yet (working with AI), but as far as me doing something like what the remaining Beatles did with the John Lennon thing… that was a partial song and they cleaned the track up. I don’t think I have anything left of Randy Rhoads.”
“Well, you know what? I’m open for anything, if it was good quality. ‘Cause, let’s face it, that Beatles thing, ‘Now And Then’, wasn’t a Beatles song; it was a John Lennon song. The thing with AI, you can go, ‘Make me a new album.’ … But that’s the future. The music scene’s gonna be completely different.”
“No (Radical changes like AI doesn’t make me nervous). The cat’s out of the bag. You can’t undo it. The danger is people will misuse it. Because I’ll get like a formula for a song and I’ll put that formula in and I’ll keep on doing that.”
“When I first heard it, I thought, ‘What the fuck is this?’ But then I heard it again and again. I have to listen to it every day now. But the only thing about that, it made me want more. It made me go, ‘Oh, fuck.’ And what it’s done, it’s rehashed all the old Lennon stuff, The Beatles stuff,” Ozzy Osbourne said.
The Beatles song mentioned was originally written by John Lennon before his death and it was meant to be used in the 90s when George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney reunited to record unfinished Lennon solo tracks, which were released as The Beatles for their anthology album. “Now and Then” couldn’t be done because the original recording wasn’t clear enough to be used but three decades later with the help of AI, they were able to “clear” Lennon’s voice and make it possible to be recorded and released.
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