Ozzy Osbourne revealed that Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page blew off a request to appear on his upcoming album, Patient Number 9. Osbourne was successful in getting the two other Yardbirds guitar legends — Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck — to appear on the set.
During a chat with Metal Hammer, Ozzy spoke about not being able to snag Page for a contribution: “I don’t even know if he plays any more, but I thought getting Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page meant having the greatest guitarists on the planet. But I never heard from him. Maybe he’d lost his phone or something!”
Ozzy Osbourne understands all too well the pros and cons of dealing with unabashed idolization. He told us he loves meeting his fans — but admitted he's never been comfortable with accolades: “I'm not very good at receiving good things said about me, y'know? When I was with Black Sabbath in the '70s, we never used to like having good reviews and they never, ever gave us a good review. And we thought maybe it was because they're not giving us good reviews that the kids are going, 'Up yours, we think they're okay,' y'know? I suppose you could say we were the punks of our time, y'know? It's more respectable that way, I think.”
Ozzy Osbourne's Patient Number 9 drops on September 9th.