Producer tells what Ozzy Osbourne said is most important in a Rock song

During the final years of his life, Ozzy Osbourne was active in the studio and he released two studio albums: “Ordinary Man” (2020) and “Patient Number 9” (2022), both produced by Andrew Watt, who has been working with a number of older Rock stars recently, like The Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop. He became a good friend of Osbourne and his family, also being part of Black Sabbath’s final performance.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Watt recalled what Ozzy told him was the most important thing in a Rock song to make it heavier.

Producer tells what Ozzy Osbourne said is most important in a Rock song

“He would always say to me, ‘Listen to Led Zeppelin and tell me what the loudest thing is.’ And me, having my confidence, I’d be like, ‘It’s the drums. John Bonham.’ He said, ‘Nope, not the drums. It’s the bass.'”

“He pointed out the bass is the most important thing in a rock song. You have to make sure the bass is there and pumping and cutting through and providing that sense of rhythm, because it’s the bridge between the drums and the guitars.”

“It makes the song heavy, because the guitars can poke through if you have them mixed in the right way. The bass is a hard thing to really get cutting but also representing the bottom.”

He continued:

“His ears were reactive. You could think he wasn’t listening and he heard every single thing. There’d be times we’d be in the studio listening to something and he’s just drawing and I’m like, ‘Oh he’s not listening’. And then he’d just give me this one line that cuts so deep, in a positive way.”

“He had a 55-year career where everything was grandiose and at the highest level. And he’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and a history buff, and a genius, a literal genius,” Andrew Watt said.

Ozzy Osbourne passed away at the age of 76 last July 22, only a few weeks after his final performance at Back to the Beginning festival, which marked his final solo show and the final Black Sabbath performance.