Ozzy Osbourne ponders making new music with A.I. Randy Rhoads riffs: “I’m open for anything, if it was good quality.”

06 Dec 2023, 15:09 · louder

By Matt Mills
( Metal Hammer )
published 6 December 2023

The Prince Of Darkness says he’s “open” to using A.I. riffs based on recordings by his late guitarist Randy Rhoads

(Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

Ozzy Osbourne has said he’s “open” to using guitar parts generated by A.I. and inspired by late guitarist Randy Rhoads in his solo music.

The former Black Sabbath singer, 74, made the comment during a new episode of the Osbournes podcast, co-hosted by his wife/manager Sharon and children Kelly and Jack.

When asked whether he’d consider doing something similar to the Beatles’ new song, Now And Then, by using A.I. to improve the audio quality of unreleased Rhoads recordings, Ozzy answers (transcribed by Guitar.com): “I haven’t considered it yet, 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.”

Jack then states that it’s possible for A.I. to come up with new riffs inspired by music featuring Rhoads that’s already been released.

“Well, you know what? I’m open for anything, if it was good quality,” Ozzy replies. “’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.”

Ozzy then denies the prospect of A.I.-generated music making him nervous about the medium’s future.

“The cat’s out of the bag,” he says. “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.”

Rhoads was Ozzy’s first guitarist when the Prince Of Darkness went solo following his Black Sabbath firing in 1979. He appeared on the albums Blizzard Of Ozz (1980) and Diary Of A Madman (1981), before dying in a plane crash aged 25 on March 19, 1982.

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Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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