Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has revealed that he once wrote a song for Ozzy Osbourne, but the Prince of Darkness chose not to record it.
Speaking with Kerrang! Radio DJ Sophie K, Grohl also revealed that the song wasn't wasted, and in fact re-emerged on one of the most intriguing and unexpected metal albums of the 2000s.
"Sharon was kind of calling out to different people to see if they wanted to help write songs with Ozzy," Grohl explained. "And so I wrote this instrumental that was almost “And so I wrote this instrumental that was almost like a Melvins song, it was super duper heavy, and I thought, this could be so cool if Ozzy sang over it. And they never picked it, they never used it.”
Given that Osbourne's 2001 album Down To Earth featuring co-writing credits for Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, former Black Grape member Danny Saber, ex-Jellyfish vocalist Andrew Sturmer and frequent Aerosmith collaborator Marti Frederiksen, it's fairly safe to say that this was the album where Grohl song could have ended up.
Ozzy's loss, however, was cult stoner metal frontman Eric Wagner's gain, for the former Trouble vocalist ended up writing lyrics for the song, My Tortured Soul, and singing it on Dave Grohl's 'surprise' underground metal album, Probot.
“The whole thing started in February of 2000," Grohl revealed while promoting the record. "Foo Fighters had made There Is Nothing Left to Lose in 1999, which was a pretty mellow record for us. We went out and played a lot of those songs live. I would find myself listening to Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. before going onstage, and then singing a song like Learn To Fly. Which I thought was kind of funny - like, ‘What am I doing with my life, man?’
"When I was young, my favourite bands were fucking Bad Brains, Void, Minor Threat, MDC, D.R.I., Corrosion Of Conformity, Slayer, Trouble, Voivod, Venom, The Obsessed and Mercyful Fate, and here I am playing music that sounds like the fucking Eagles or something!”
Probot became Dave Grohl's love letter to the underground metal bands that he first fell in love with as a teenager. With different vocalists on every song, the album featured contributions from Lemmy from Motörhead, Sepultura’s Max Cavalera, Snake from Voivod, King Diamond, Cronos from Venom, former Napalm Death vocalist Lee Dorrian (then fronting Cathedral), Celtic Frost’s Tom G. Warrior, D.R.I.’s Kurt Brecht and ex-Obsessed frontman Wino, among others.
Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2023, Grohl's Probot collaborator Matt Sweeney (Chavez/Zwan) revealed that the Foo Fighters leader had also originally hoped to feature Slayer's Tom Araya and Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo on the record, but that things didn't work out.
Probot emerged via indie record label Southern Lord in 2004.
“Major labels would have taken this record," Grohl said, "and slapped my name real big on a sticker on the front of the CD - ‘Dave Grohl’s fuckin’ metal band.’ And that would have ruined everything, because, to me, the focus should be on these vocalists. Some of the people at labels were asking who these singers are and why they should be on the record, and it was important that I give the album to someone who understood these people and this kind of music and who wouldn’t take advantage of the easy sell.”
Watch a rare performance of My Tortured Soul, below.
Grohl's 'proper' band Foo Fighters will release their album Your Favorite Toy via Roswell Records/Columbia Records on April 24.
The 10-track album was recorded at Dave Grohl's 606 studio and co-produced by Foo Fighters and their in-house engineer Oliver Roman.
