An obscure track that saw Ozzy Osbourne and Madonna collaborate has been unearthed.
The song in question was brought to light in a rare interview with Ozzy’s eldest son, Louis, whose mother is Thelma Riley, the first wife of the Black Sabbath icon.
In a new interview on his half-brother Jack Osbourne’s Trying Not to Die podcast, the two spoke about their late father and opened up about a long-lost song that saw his vocals feature alongside those of Madonna.
Called ‘Shake Your Head’ the song is a remix of the track by the American band Was (Not Was), which was first released with Kim Basinger’s vocals in place of Madonna’s.
In the interview, Louis shared how when the song was written in the early ‘80s, when Madonna had not yet become a household name, and added the song was not originally meant to feature Ozzy.
“Was (Not Was) did a duet with Madonna,” he shared. “It was written for Madonna and Was (Not Was) […then Ozzy was brought in] and she really fucking popped [in popularity] and then didn’t give approval on the record.”
He continued: “So that was canned. And then when Kim Basinger was having that big acting moment in the middle of her career in the ’80s, they decided they were going to try and make her a pop star, as well. So they tracked Kim Basinger on it instead.”
Jack Osbourne chimed in, saying: “No one really knows it because commercially it was promoted as Was (Not Was) and Kim Basinger. They didn’t really push that it was my dad as well.
“They didn’t credit dad for being the other vocalist on there. I don’t know why. It might have been the record label just being like ‘Oh, let’s market it as Was (Not Was) with Kim Basinger.”
The version with both Madonna and Ozzy was later shared almost 10 years later on a vinyl version of the ‘Now Dance 92’ compilation, and the song was then quietly uploaded to YouTube a couple of years ago, but not brought to light until recently.
Don Was of Was (Not Was) recently spoke about the remix in an interview with Rolling Stone, and discussed Madonna’s contributions. “She did a great job… but it didn’t sound like Was (Not Was) to me anymore,” he said, adding why Ozzy was later brought in to the song.
“We realised about eight years later that we had Ozzy and Madonna on parallel tracks,” Was adds. “So we gave it to a remixer… and he turned it into a Ozzy/Madonna duet,” he added, saying that it was after hearing that that the queen of pop turned down the song and Basinger was brought in.
The metal icon passed away on July 22 at the age of 76, just over two weeks after he played his last ever show as the frontman of Black Sabbath at a concert at Villa Park in Birmingham.
He was laid to rest in the grounds of his UK mansion during a private ceremony that was attended by Elton John, members of Metallica and more, and his cortege had previously travelled through his home city of Birmingham in a procession attended by thousands of fans.
Since his death, his wife and manager Sharon has criticised Black Sabbath’s first manager and urged him not to release an album of the band’s earliest recordings, dating back to the ‘60s.
The manager would later respond and say it was “such a shame Sharon has decided to go all out on the attack without sitting down to talk about this. It’s also very unfair of her to make such inaccurate and potentially defamatory comments.”
As for Madonna, next week the singer is set to release a ‘Bedtime Stories’ 30th anniversary EP with early demos and rarities. She has also announced her return to Warner Records with a new dance album, ‘Confessions On A Dance Floor Part 2’, scheduled to arrive in 2026.
