The Travis Scott song that was Ozzy Osbourne’s favourite since Black Sabbath
Ozzy Osbourne collaborated with many artists, including Elton John, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck, across his penultimate and final albums. However, arguably one of the intriguing moments of his career saw him teaming up with Travis Scott and Post Malone. The heavy metal legend crossed paths with the two rappers through producer Louis Bell, resulting in one of his favourite tracks of all time.
Their song ‘Take What You Want’ appeared on Malone’s 2019 album Hollywood’s Bleeding and Osbourne’s 2020 album Ordinary Man. The record finds each artist touching on relationships that have broken their hearts. Ultimately, the song was a commercial success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.
During an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Malone explained how the collaboration came about. “Ozzy Osbourne, baby,” he began. “I was in Utah because I had just got off tour. It’s good, right? Ozzy went over to [producer Andrew Watt’s] house. You’ve talked a lot before. He’s a maniac. I said, ‘Hey, you know what? Ozzy Osborne’s coming down, we’re going to cut it and I’ll FaceTime you. And you let me know what’s going on.’”
Malone claimed Osbourne told Watt that ‘Take What You Want’ was his favourite song since his Black Sabbath days. “We talked and it was like a big deal,” he said. “Yeah, Ozzy Osbourne. I think he crushed it. I mean he was talking to Watt and Watt was telling me he was like this, ‘Yo, this is my favourite that I’ve done since you know, Sabbath, and since I started my own, own way.’ I was like, ‘That’s huge.’ I’m like, honoured. Thank you very much.”
The addition of Scott was the cherry on top, coming through with a second verse on the track. Between Osbourne’s legend status and Malone and Scott’s stardom in the streaming era, there was no doubt it would strike gold. It’s one of the biggest tracks of their careers, racking up over 709million Spotify streams since it was released.
In his verse, Scott raps, “I took them stones you threw, made chains for the crew/ I brought up 10 hoes, this coupe only made for two/ They all ran through it, it ain’t nothin’ left to do/ I need some more reasons to live out this evening/ I’ve been sippin’ forever and just taking whatever/ Hoping, thinking whenever you’ll be back around/ Let’s go our ways, whichever/ You say how is however long/ ‘Cause you know I’ll never be alone.”
‘Take What You Want’ is two times platinum in the US, with Malone and Osbourne once performing the song together at a Los Angeles show in November 2019. Osbourne stated the collaboration with Malone and Watt revived his career. “I was just lying in my own self-pity for months,” he told The Sun. “I’ve missed music so badly. My fans are so loyal and so good. Up until making [Ordinary Man], I thought I was dying, but it got me off my arse. It’s the greatest album I’ve done.”