Ozzy Osbourne has revealed that Eric Clapton took umbrage with a religious lyric in ‘One Of Those Days’, a forthcoming collaborative single between the two.
Osbourne discussed the song in a new interview with Classic Rock to promote his upcoming 13th solo album, ‘Patient Number 9’. The song features the lyric, “One of those days / That I don’t believe in Jesus.” Osbourne said that he believes the line will “cause shit”, and used the reaction of Clapton – who is a born-again Christian – as proof.
“[Clapton] said, ‘Oh, I’m not sure about that lyric’,” Osbourne said. “We tried to replace it with some alternatives. We did ‘One of those days / Where I don’t believe in Christmas’, but it didn’t sound right. Losing faith in Jesus makes much more sense when the world is turning to shit.”
Osbourne also noted that the song is “not an ‘I am an antichrist’ song”, but was instead about “days where everything goes fucking wrong, and you’re going nuts trying to fix everything up”.
“I think [‘One Of Those Days’] and the whole album turned out great,” he added.
The song marks Osbourne’s first official collaboration with Claption, although the Black Sabbath leader has had run-ins with the guitarist in the past. In a story told on his Sirius XM show Ozzy Speaks, Osbourne noted that he had gotten a photo with Clapton and Grace Jones at an awards show while he was intoxicated – and Clapton was freshly out of rehab.
This lead Osbourne to be “paranoid as fuck” about Clapton holding a grudge against him, and later attempting to avoid Clapton when the two were at the same Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. “I’m thinking he hates me,” Osbourne said upon spotting Clapton. “He’s gonna call me the biggest cunt he ever met.”
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When Clapton approached him at a second AA meeting, however, the two diffused the situation and Osbourne recalled walking away from the interaction thinking that Clapton was “a nice guy”.
Other musicians that will appear on ‘Patient Number 9’ include Jeff Beck, Osbourne’s former guitarist Zakk Wylde and Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi – marking the first time he has appeared on a solo track by Osbourne. The album is set for release on September 9.