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“I’m open for anything, if it was good quality”: Ozzy Osbourne on whether he’d release a song with AI-generated Randy Rhoads
Ozzy says he’d potentially be open to working on music featuring AI-generated Randy Rhoads guitar parts.
Image: Icon Sportswire / Gary Gershoff / Getty Images
Ozzy Osbourne has opened up about the possibility of releasing a song featuring an AI-generated version of his late guitarist, Randy Rhoads.
On the latest episode of the Osbournes podcast, the musician and his family discuss the technology used on the Beatles’ newly released song Now And Then, which features sonic contributions from all four members, including the late John Lennon — whose vocals were extracted from “a ropey little bit of cassette”.
As for whether he’d consider doing something similar with unreleased Randy Rhoads material, Osbourne says: “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.”
Ozzy’s son Jack then noted that it’s possible to make a song by having AI come up with guitar parts based on Rhoads’ existing recordings, to which the rocker replies: “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,” he adds. “The music scene’s gonna be completely different.”
Asked if the prospect makes him nervous, the Prince of Darkness only says: “No.”
“The cat’s out of the bag,” he added. “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.”
Circling back to his first thoughts on Now and Then, Ozzy said: “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.”