Ozzy Osbourne - Just Want You

I Just Want You / studio recording

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

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.

I Just Want You / demo recording

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

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

Ozzy: (1995 interview with Sharon Kaufman):
There's this one track on the album which I wrote with Jim Vallance, where he said, "You know what, Ozzy, I was thinking about this idea." 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.

Ozzy (from The Ozzman Cometh liner notes):
This is my favorite song from Ozzmosis. Jim and I came up with these incredible lines: ‘There are no impossible dreams, there are no invisible seams.’ And after all those incredible things said in the song, the one line, ‘I don’t ask much, I just want you,’ seemed to be a nice way to sum it all up.

In case you didn't know, Ozzy was the world's biggest Beatle fan!

On our original home-demo recording of "I Just Want You" we started 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 wanted to keep those elements in, but his producer removed all Beatle references when they recorded the final studio version of the song.

Actually, it was the producer's idea to hook me up with Ozzy. He called me in January or February 1994 and said he thought it'd be great if Ozzy and I could get together to write.

I accepted the invitation on the spot. Ozzy flew up to Vancouver from LA and we spent a couple of weeks writing.

The producer 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 later a cassette tape arrived in the mail. I popped it in my machine and pressed "play".

The first song on the tape, if I recall, was a 1960's duet with Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy. The next track was "Nine Inch Nails", followed by Beethoven? ... and it went like that, about 30 songs in all.

I was completely baffled.

I still am!