Andrew Watt has become Ozzy Osbourne's go-to producer of late, having worked with the Prince of Darkness on his last two solo albums, 2020's Ordinary Man and 2022's Patient Number 9. Perhaps no one is more surprised about that development than Watt himself.
"When they first asked me, I kinda was timid about it," Watt tells ABC Audio. "Not because I didn't want to work with Ozzy, I just didn't want to be responsible for making the worst Ozzy album that he's ever made."
That, of course, didn't happen — Ordinary Man was hailed as a critical and commercial comeback for the Prince of Darkness, while Patient Number 9 earned Ozzy four nominations at this Sunday's Grammys, including Best Rock Album. Working on Patient Number 9, Watt says, was "a little bit tougher" than Ordinary Man, but "in a good way."
"It was, I would say, a challenge ... to set it apart [from Ordinary Man]," Watt says. "What we did to set it apart was I feel like [Patient Number 9 is] way heavier, and it's got all the guest guitarists."
Those guest guitarists, which include Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and the late Jeff Beck, basically turned Patient Number 9 into Watt's own superhero team-up movie.
"It's so much fun to dream up these scenarios," Watt says. "Let's put Mike McCready on this, like, Van Halen-y, '80s-sounding Ozzy song. Like, Mike McCready loves Ozzy and Randy [Rhoads] and Van Halen so much, he's gonna f***ing come in and crush this."
Should Ozzy want to reunite for a third album, Watt is at the ready.
"He's become one of my best friends and like a family member," Watt says. "I'll make as many albums with him as he wants."