“It’s the first ever time in my entire life that I’ve been able to do a duet with Ozzy,” Rob Halford said about collaborating with the metal legend who died in July
Judas Priest are working behind the scenes to get clearance permission to release an official cover of Black Sabbath‘s “War Pigs” featuring the late Ozzy Osbourne. During a recent appearance on the Full Metal Jackie podcast, frontman Rob Halford detailed the process of recording the duet with Osbourne prior to the metal legend’s death in July.
“Ozzy’s singing a line and then I’m singing a line, and Ozzy’s singing a line and I’m singing a line,” Halford said. “It’s the first ever time in my entire life that I’ve been able to do a duet with Ozzy and I’m so eternally grateful and blessed that I was able to do that.”
Halford revealed that Sharon Osbourne was responsible for bringing them together. She took a liking to the “War Pigs” cover Judas Priest have performed at other points in their career. “She approached me with this idea, she said, ‘I love your version of War Pigs. Is there a way we can get Ozzy?’” Halford recalled. “I was [like], ‘You’re asking me? This is gonna happen!’”
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Halford didn’t share an official timeline for when the duet was recorded, or when it will be officially released, but noted that “the green button’s almost ready to go” and “it’s gonna be pretty soon.” In the meantime, the musician is setting the anticipatory bar high. “When you hear it, it’s just colossal,” he said. “You think that you’ve heard the one experience of Priest’s ‘War Pigs,’ but when you hear Priest’s ‘War Pigs’ with Ozzy singing on that track, it’s just going to a really special place.”
For now, posthumous musical appearances from Osbourne have not yet been released. The musician died of a heart attack on July 22, after which Halford “curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours.” Osbourne did appear briefly in the finale of Lego Masters Jr., the series hosted by his daughter, Kelly Osbourne.
