Ozzy Osbourne: vocals
Zakk Wylde: guitar
Rick Wakeman: keyboards
Michael Beinhorn: keyboards
Geezer Butler: bass
Deen Castronovo: drums

Produced by Michael Beinhorn.  Recorded by Paul Northfield at Guillaume Tell Studios (Paris), Right Track Recording (New York), Bearsville Studios (Woodstock), Electric Lady Studios (New York).  Mixed by David Bianco.

Ozzy Osbourne: vocals
Jim Vallance: guitar, keyboards, bass, drums

Produced and recorded by Ozzy and Jim at Armoury Studios, March 1994.

Ozzy: There's this one track on the album which I wrote with Jim Vallance, where he said, "You know what, Ozzy, I was in bed last night and I was thinking about this idea. What do you think about this?" And he started with, "There are no impossible dreams, there are no invisible seams."

Then we went onto, "There are no incurable ills, there are no unkillable thrills." And we just kept bouncing this shit off all day! It was endless! And right at the end is, "I don't ask much -- I just want you." It's a f--king phenomenal song. -- (from a 1995 interview with Sharon Kaufman).

Jim: "I Just Want You" was fun to write.  Ozzy and I sat in my studio and bounced rhyming lyric lines back and forth for an hour or two until we had a page-full of ideas ... some of them brilliant, some of them just plain silly. The song grew out of that (click on the "lyric sheet" below).

Ozzy is the world's biggest Beatle fan. "I Just Want You" started out, on the original demo recording, with a "Strawberry Fields" flute motif cycling through the verses, eventually building to a heavy chorus with drums and guitars (listen to the "demo version" above). Ozzy fought to keep those elements in, but producer Michael Beinhorn erased all Beatle references when he cut the studio version of the song.

It was Beinhorn's idea to hook me up with Ozzy.  He called me from New York in January or February 1994 and said he thought it'd be great if Ozzy and I could get together to write. 

I was already a fan of Ozzy's, and I was also familiar with Beinhorn's contribution to landmark albums for Soundgarden, Soul Asylum, and the Chili Peppers. 

I accepted the invitation on the spot.

Michael told me he planned on taking Ozzy's music in "a completely different direction".  When I asked him to explain, he said "Let me send you a tape with some inspirational ideas". A few days latter a cassette tape arrived in the mail.  I popped it in the machine and pushed "play".

The first song, as I recall, was a mid-60s duet with Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy.  The next track was "Nine Inch Nails" ... and it kind of went like that, about 30 songs in all. 

I was completely baffled.

To this day I don't know if there really were some "inspirational ideas" on that tape, or if Beinhorn was just yanking my chain.

I adore Ozzy.  He's the sweetest, kindest, most considerate man you'd ever want to meet. He's also the funniest ... much funnier in person than he is on "The Osbournes" television show. 

Ozzy's a born comedian, he loves to make people laugh. Once he knows he's "got you going", there's no stopping him  --  he just gets funnier and funnier. 

When I was writing with Ozzy in 1994, my wife Rachel would occasionally drop by the studio for a visit, and Ozzy would have us both in stitches. Later, back at home, my wife would say, "You know, someone should be filming this!".

One night a group of us went out for dinner:  me, Rachel, Ozzy, producer Bruce Fairbairn, and some of the guys from the band Chicago, who were recording with Bruce at my studio.  If Ozzy is the funniest guy on the planet, then Chicago's trombonist Jimmy Pankow is a close second!  Between the two of them, Ozzy and Jimmy had the rest of us rolling on the floor for hours!  

More than ten years later my wife and I still talk about that evening as one of the highlights of our many decades in the music business.