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Legendary songwriter Russ Ballard has recalled the time he tried and failed to write a song with Ozzy Osbourne – only for the Prince Of Darkness to offer tips on buying some expensive military hardware instead.
Speaking in the brand new issue of Classic Rock magazine, former Argent singer-turned-hitmaker Ballard – who penned such classic anthems as Since You Been Gone and God Gave Rock And Roll To You, as popularised by Rainbow and Kiss respectively – looked back on a brief but amusing attempt to collaborate with Ozzy.
“This happened after Ozzy had his hit with Lita Ford [Close My Eyes Forever], so it would have been at the end of the 1980s,” recalls Ballard. “Ozzy’s record company called me to say that he had done an album but it needed a single, and would I like to write with him?
“So Ozzy came to my house,” continues Ballard. “He arrived walking with a stick and it looked like he’d been having a bit of a rough time. He was really, really funny. We sat in my sitting room, which looked out on a huge garden. Ozzy asked whether I had night-sight goggles. And of course I didn’t. He told me you could pick up an ex-military pair for ten thousand dollars. He had a pair.
“He was saying all of this really funny stuff, though I’m not sure it was meant to be. We were having such a fun time we didn’t do any writing. Boy, he was a very, very funny guy.”
In the same interview, Ballard also reveals that Ritchie Blackmore asked him to write another song nearly 40 years after Blackmore’s band, Rainbow, had a hit with Since You Been Gone.
“When Ritchie put Rainbow back together, his manager invited me to play with them at a gig at the O2 Arena [in 2017],” says Ballard. “We did Since You Been Gone together. Because we had similar backgrounds we got along really well; like him, I used to be in [60s band] The Outlaws.
“Ritchie said he did these big gigs to make money, but what he enjoyed best was playing in churches and castles with his missus [Candice Night]. He asked if I’d write him another song. I replied: “Sure. What do you want, rock?” But he preferred minstrel music. In the end, though, I never heard from Ritchie again.”
Read the full interview with Russ Ballard in the brand new issue of Classic Rock, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
