'How lucky I was to share in a little of Ozzy's magic?' Producer Andrew Watt pays tribute to his friend
It's been just three weeks since Ozzy Osbourne's sudden passing and his friends and colleagues are still coming to terms with their loss.
The latest to make a public statement is Andrew Watt. The esteemed producer, who worked on Ozzy's final pair of solo albums – 2020's Ordinary Man and Patient Number 9 from 2022 - has shared his thoughts about the man via a post on Instagram.
'Still processing saying goodbye to @ozzyosbourne,' he wrote, alongside a number of personal videos and photos of his friend.
'Someone said 'Grief is the price of Love.' I say that to myself everyday but at the end of the day I just miss my friend so much. There is a new hole in my heart, something I will learn to live with… The music is obvious… how lucky I was to share in a little of Ozzy's magic, but the friendship was the greatest gift of all… I will miss laughing with you forever Boss… Do you want a kick in the balls?'
Ordinary Man was Watt's first full production credit on an album, after which he went on to on work with some of music's biggest names, including the Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop and Paul McCartney. He clearly made a lasting connection with the Black Sabbath singer.
'Ozzy and I have a connection that's unlike anything else I've ever experienced,' he told Guitar World just a couple of months ago. 'We made some music together that we really love, and we'll continue making music together forever. More importantly than that, we talk every day and we're really close friends.'
And yes, Watt also made an appearance at the Back To The Beginning gig at Villa Park back in early July, just like pretty much everyone who is anyone in the rock/metal world.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Singer Responds After Millions Online Call His Band's Song the ‘Worst Ever Made'
Singer Responds After Millions Online Call His Band's Song the 'Worst Ever Made' originally appeared on Parade. Can there be such a thing as "the worst song of all time?" Taste is subjective, and music trends shift over time. But recently, the Internet thought they found what they thought was "the worst song ever made": Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' "Home." For those going "Who?" right now, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros was a band Alex Ebert formed in 2005. They were part of an indie folk revival that also gave us Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, Of Monsters & Men and other bands you, at first glance, would probably associate with ornate mustaches, knit hats and artisanal IPAs. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros performed on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series in 2009, and a clip of them performing "Home" recently went viral, getting 91 million views on X, with many dubbing it the absolute worst. "We were seized by some kind of faux frontiersman cult for urbanites. Probably the worst cultural era in history," said one user. This discourse prompted Ebert to weigh in on Aug. 7. In a video posted on Instagram, he said that the song's "bones are good," since it's been "covered multiple times" and still works." "' Home' isn't a good recording, it's just a good song," he said in the video. "But it not being a good recording is what I love about 'Home.' It's like a moment. We recorded it on tape, we didn't even know how to record on tape [and] it sounds like it's made in some muffled 'Home' is apparently a good song." In the caption, Ebert also detailed how he played "Home" on a piano for his 90-year-old father on his birthday, and that rendition is his "favorite version of the song." Elsewhere in the video, Ebert claimed that his band was "the first to do the stomp and clap [explicative] folk pop thing to the point where the Lumineers sought out one of the co-producers." He also alleged that Of Monsters & Men mimicked Edward Sharpe's sound. "[They] got so close to 'Home' that we almost sued." Was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' 'Home' A Hit? "Home" reached No. 25 on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart in 2010. It fared better overseas: it peaked at No. 5 on the U.K. Indie Charts (while reaching 50 on the U.K. Singles chart). In 2020, Edith Wiskers (aka Tm Rosenthal) 's version went viral on TikTok. In 2021, Kelly Clarkson covered it on a "Kellyoke" Responds After Millions Online Call His Band's Song the 'Worst Ever Made' first appeared on Parade on Aug 11, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 11, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gaza's young musicians sing and play in the ruins of war
Gaza's young musicians sing and play in the ruins of war GAZA CITY (Reuters) -A boy's lilting song filled the tent in Gaza City, above an instrumental melody and backing singers' quiet harmonies, soft music that floated into streets these days more attuned to the deadly beat of bombs and bullets. The young students were taking part in a lesson given on August 4 by teachers from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, who have continued classes from displacement camps and shattered buildings even after Israel's bombardments forced them to abandon the school's main building in the city. "When I play I feel like I'm flying away," said Rifan al-Qassas, 15, who started learning the oud, an Arab lute, when she was nine. She hopes to one day play abroad. "Music gives me hope and eases my fear," she said. Al-Qassas hopes to one day play abroad, she said during a weekend class at the heavily shelled Gaza College, a school in Gaza City. Israel's military again pounded parts of the city on August 12, with more than 120 people killed over the past few days, Gazan health authorities say. The conservatory was founded in the West Bank and had been a cultural lifeline for Gaza ever since it opened a branch there 13 years ago, teaching classical music along with popular genres, until Israel launched its war on the Mediterranean enclave in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. Before the fighting, Israel sometimes granted the best students exit permits to travel outside Gaza to play in the Palestine Youth Orchestra, the conservatory's touring ensemble. Others performed inside Gaza, giving concerts in both Arabic and Western traditions. After 22 months of bombardment, some of the students are now dead, said Suhail Khoury, the conservatory's president, including 14-year-old violinist Lubna Alyaan, killed along with her family early in the war. The school's old home lies in ruins, according to a video released in January by a teacher. Walls had collapsed and rooms were littered with debris. A grand piano had disappeared. Reuters asked the Israeli military about the damage. The military declined to comment without more details, which Reuters could not establish. During last week's session, over a dozen students gathered under the tent's rustling plastic sheets to practice on instruments carefully preserved through the war and to join together in song and music. "No fig leaf will wither inside us," the boy sang, a line from a popular lament about Palestinian loss through generations of displacement since the 1948 creation of Israel. Three female students practised the song Greensleeves on guitar outside the tent, while another group of boys were tapping out rhythms on Middle Eastern hand drums. Few instruments have survived the fighting, said Fouad Khader, who coordinates the revived classes for the conservatory. Teachers have bought some from other displaced people for the students to use. But some of these have been smashed during bombardment, he said. Instructors have experimented with making their own percussion instruments from empty cans and containers to train children, Khader said. A BROAD SMILE Early last year, Ahmed Abu Amsha, a guitar and violin teacher with a big beard and a broad smile, was among the first of the conservatory's scattered teachers and students who began offering classes again, playing guitar in the evenings among the tents of displaced people in the south of Gaza, where much of the 2.1 million population had been forced to move by Israeli evacuation orders and bombing. Then, after a ceasefire began in January, Abu Amsha, 43, was among the tens of thousands of people who moved back north to Gaza City, much of which has been flattened by Israeli bombing. For the past six months, he has been living and working in the city's central district, along with colleagues teaching oud, guitar, hand drums and the ney, a reed flute, to students able to reach them in the tents or shell-pocked buildings of Gaza College. They also go into kindergartens for sessions with small children. Teachers are also offering music lessons in southern and central Gaza with 12 musicians and three singing tutors instructing nearly 600 students across the enclave in June, the conservatory said. Abu Amsha said teachers and parents of students were currently "deeply concerned" about being uprooted again after the Israeli cabinet's August 8 decision to take control of Gaza City. Israel has not said when it will launch the new offensive. HUNGER AND FATIGUE Outside the music teachers' tent, Gaza City lay in a mass of crumbling concrete, nearly all residents crammed into shelters or camps with hardly any food, clean water or medical aid. The students and teachers say they have to overcome their weakness from food shortages to attend the classes. Britain, Canada, Australia and several of their European allies said on August 12 that "famine was unfolding before our eyes" in Gaza. Israel disputes malnutrition figures for the Hamas-run enclave. Sarah al-Suwairki, 20, said sometimes hunger and tiredness mean she cannot manage the short walk to her two music classes each week, but she loves learning the guitar. "I love discovering new genres, but more specifically rock. I am very into rock," she said. Palestinian health authorities say Israel's military campaign has killed more than 61,000 people, including more than 1,400 going to aid points to get food. Israel says Hamas is responsible for the suffering after it started the war, the latest in decades of conflict, with the October 2023 attack from Gaza when its gunmen killed 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. MUSIC THERAPY In a surviving upstairs room at Gaza College, the walls pocked with shrapnel scars, the windows blown out, three girls and a boy sit for a guitar class. Their teacher Mohammed Abu Mahadi, 32, said he thought music could help heal Gazans psychologically from the pain of bombardments, loss and shortages. "What I do here is make children happy from music because it is one of the best ways for expressing feelings," he said. Elizabeth Coombes, who directs a music therapy programme at Britain's University of South Wales and has done research with Palestinians in the West Bank, also said the project could help young people deal with trauma and stress and strengthen their sense of belonging. "For children who have been very badly traumatised or living in conflict zones, the properties of music itself can really help and support people," she said. Ismail Daoud, 45, who teaches the oud, said the war had stripped people of their creativity and imagination, their lives reduced to securing basics like food and water. Returning to art was an escape and a reminder of a larger humanity. "The instrument represents the soul of the player, it represents his companion, his entity and his friend," he said. "Music is a glimmer of hope that all our children and people hold onto in darkness," he said.


New York Post
37 minutes ago
- New York Post
Taylor Swift recalls Jason Kelce panicking over his beer when meeting the royal family: ‘I knew you were serious'
Hold my beer. Taylor Swift recalled the hilarious moment Jason Kelce found himself in full-blown panic mode over his beer when she asked if he wanted to meet the British royals following her 'Eras' show in London. The 14-time Grammy winner, whose appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce's 'New Heights' podcast sent shockwaves across the internet on Wednesday, told fans about the retired NFL star's royal run-in. Advertisement 6 Taylor Swift recalled the hilarious moment Jason Kelce found himself in full-blown panic mode over his beer when she asked if he wanted to meet the British royals. @New Heights/YouTube As the trio discussed Travis's show-stopping debut on the 'Eras' tour stage last summer at Swift's Wembley show, the 'Blank Space' singer divulged another memorable moment that night. 'Wasn't this the week I got to watch Jason meet the royal family?' Swift asked the Kelce brothers. Advertisement 'He was like, 'What do I do with my beer?'' the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, recalled, laughing at his sibling. 'I watched him have this moment with his beer where he was like, 'But I want to take it, but I know that I probably should not take it,' ' Swift said, gesturing Jason holding his beer. 'I watched this happen, and it kind of was the most amazing [thing].' 6 The 14-time Grammy winner's appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce's 'New Heights' podcast sent shockwaves across the internet on Wednesday. @New Heights/YouTube Advertisement 6 The Kelce brothers met Prince William and his two eldest children, Prince George, 12, and Princess Charlotte, 10. @taylorswift/Instagram The 37-year-old, who retired from the NFL in March 2024, met Prince William and his two eldest children, Prince George, 12, and Princess Charlotte, 10. 'I like that you picked up on it because that was exactly what was going through my head,' Jason said in response to Swift's analysis of the situation. 'Like if I don't have my beer, what do I do with my hand now?' Swift quipped. Advertisement 'Is it disrespectful to have a beer when you meet royalty?' Jason mused. 6 The singer posed for photos with the British royals following her London show at Wembley in June 2024. Prince and Princess of Wales/Instagram 6 The retired NFL star, 37, panicked over what to do with his beer when he realized he would be meeting royalty. Getty Images 'Yeah,' Swift said, 'or is it authentic by having the beer? I would normally have the beer, wouldn't they want me to be myself? I'm watching you say that in your head.' 'It was fantastic,' the 'Fortnight' singer, who announced her 12th studio album, 'The Life of a Showgirl,' during her podcast appearance. Still, it appears the royal meet-up went swimmingly, as Swift and Travis shared selfies with the future king and his children on Instagram, as well as the Prince of Wales himself. 'Thank you @taylorswift for a great evening! #LondonTSTheErastour,' the Prince and Princess of Wales' official Instagram account captioned a photo of Swift taking a selfie with the royal and his two children. Advertisement Swift's photo, meanwhile, included her boyfriend too. 6 The trio discussed Travis's show-stopping debut on the 'Eras' tour stage last summer at Swift's Wembley showfor TAS Rights Management William — who celebrated his 42nd birthday just days prior — grinned in between Swift and the 3-time Super Bowl champ while keeping a hand on both of his kids. 'Happy Bday M8! London shows are off to a splendid start,' Swift captioned her post.