In their respective careers, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne have welcomed collaboration even with a musical name that doesn’t seemingly align. Yet, despite their status as two of the biggest heavyweights in rock that Britain has ever produced, their paths have never crossed in a professional capacity. Nevertheless, Osbourne did attempt to right this wrong, but sadly, his efforts were to no avail.
While Page is most revered for his work with Led Zeppelin, that is only part of his musical history. Before forming the band that would dominate rock music for a decade, he’d already built a reputation as one of the fiercest guitarists in London town. He was a session musician for the stars, playing on hit records from Tom Jones’ ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and Shirley Bassey’s iconic ‘Goldfinger,’ which led to him joining The Yardbirds.
Although Page largely sought work with others to pay the bills in his early days, that’s no longer the required criteria. Instead, he’s only interested in working with artists with whom he can forge a meaningful connection in the studio. On paper, Osbourne would be the ideal accomplice for Page. Frustratingly for rock fans, the Led Zeppelin guitarist thought otherwise. Osbourne’s invitation to Page was brought to light by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who assisted the Black Sabbath frontman on his album, Patient Number 9. The aim was to combine Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, who all played with The Yardbirds, on one album. While Clapton and Beck obliged, Page wasn’t interested in the potential collaboration.
Smith revealed on the Talk Is Jericho podcast: “Eric Clapton plays a wah-wah fucking Cream-type solo. We’re like, ‘Eric, can you solo on this song? Wah-wah, please! Eric, what do you think about this with the wah-wah?’ And that’s his fucking thing, so he’s soloing all over this other track. And then Jeff Beck is on two songs. We tried to get Jimmy Page; we wanted the holy trinity, but I don’t think Jimmy plays too much anymore.”
Osbourne later confirmed this as accurate and confessed that he was unsure if Page was still active in the music industry. Detailing further, he added, “But I never heard from him. Maybe he’d lost his phone or somethin”g. Although Page doesn’t regularly play in public anymore and rarely makes guest appearances on records, he’s not retired.
While Osbourne didn’t have the answer for Page’s refusal, the Led Zeppelin guitarist later revealed that it was due to his reluctance to record remotely. In an interview with Classic Rock, he explained, “I will never be one of those people who’ll record alone and send someone a file. I never went into music in the first place to do that—it was for playing together.”
Sitting in a studio alone in London and sending an audio file online to Osborne in Los Angeles was not appealing to Page, who seeks human connection during the recording process. It would likely have been a different answer if Osbourne had asked Page to record in the same room as him and allowed him to feed off his energy. Yet, this wasn’t possible because the recording of Patient Number 9 occurred amid a global pandemic that left the pair continents apart.
Due to Osbourne’s ongoing health problems, it now looks like the ship has sailed on the pair ever working together. However, in a dream world, Page makes a surprise appearance this summer during Osbourne’s farewell concert at Villa Park and finally makes this fantasy meeting of rock giants a reality.
