Down to Earth is the eighth studio album by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. Released on 16 October 2001, it reached number 19 on the UK Albums Chart and number four on the US Billboard 200. "The Ozzfest was doing well", Osbourne explained. "I just wanted to be like the Grateful Dead and keep it going by touring, but the record company said they'd like a new Ozzy album."[5]
Excluding his contributions to re-recordings of Ozzy's earlier material, Down to Earth is the only Osbourne studio album to feature bassist Robert Trujillo, who left to join Metallica in 2003. It was the first Osbourne album to feature drummer Mike Bordin, previously of Faith No More, though he had played live with Osbourne since 1996, as well as the last to feature guitaristZakk Wylde until 2007's Black Rain. Though he plays on the album, Wylde did not contribute as a songwriter for the first time since joining Osbourne's band in 1988, because many of the songs were written before Wylde rejoined the band. Osbourne's previous guitarist Joe Holmes was involved in the writing and Osbourne chose to use outside songwriters such as producer Tim Palmer and Aerosmith collaborator Marti Frederiksen.
"Working with Tim on this album reminded me of [late guitarist] Randy [Rhoads]", Ozzy remarked of Palmer. "If it hadn't been for him, there wouldn't have been an album ... He has incredible patience, just like Randy."[6]
Allegedly, the Weezer song "Hash Pipe" was slated for this album. Ozzy approached that band's vocalist, Rivers Cuomo, for song ideas, and Hash Pipe was one of them, however, Osbourne did not use the song,[7] and Weezer included it on their Green Album instead.
[1]
