Longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist and band leader Zakk Wylde was excluded from sessions for Ozzy's acclaimed Ordinary Man album in 2020, and has not been invited back to the studio this year for Ozzy's next LP.

Ozzy has been working on the new effort with producer/guitarist Andrew Watt, who also produced Ordinary Man.

But in a conversation last week with Eddie Trunk, Wylde explained that he's far beyond any misgivings about seeing Ozzy gravitate towards another songwriter.

"I always support the boss," Wylde said. "My relationship with him is bigger than the music. ...If he said, 'Zakk, can you do me a favor? Come over here and feed the dogs. I'm gonna be gone for three days.' [I would say] 'Yeah, whatever you want. And I'll bring some milk and eggs on the way over as well.' Yeah, that's my relationship with him. We're still talking and everything like that — texting each other. It's all good."

The guitarist added that he's still in Ozzy's live band and will be at the Prince of Darkness's right hand if/when he's ready to get back on tour.

Wylde says he approved of the Ordinary Man album, which featured Watt on guitar, Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan on bass and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums, with additional appearances by Slash, Elton John and Post Malone.

Ozzy recently revealed to Metal Hammer that he and Watt had completed about 15 tracks for the new album, but he indicated that their work was far from over.

Watt told Guitar World in December that work on the new record was somewhat slowed due to strict COVID-19 protocols under which they were working. But they were making progress anyway, and the album was going to feature a similar stable of all-stars as Ordinary Man.

Wylde on the other hand has been hard at work on a new Black Label Society album, which hopes will be ready in time for a fall release.

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