Eric Clapton Tried to Get Ozzy to Change New Song Lyric About Not Believing in Jesus

Ozzy Osbourne is no stranger to controversy, and the singer reveals in a new issue of Classic Rock magazine that there's a lyric on his new album that might get a little push back. In fact, it already did from one of the Patient Number 9 guest contributors, Eric Clapton.

The song in question is "One of These Days," which features a lyric, "One of those days that I don't believe in Jesus." Seeing the potential for trouble, Ozzy says Clapton tried to convince him to change it.

Osbourne put the lyric in context, stating, “It’s not an I Am An Anti-Christ song. It’s about those days where everything goes fucking wrong, and you’re going nuts trying to fix everything up."

Revealing Clapton's initial reaction, Osbourne recalled, "He said, ‘Oh, I’m not sure about that lyric.' So we tried to replace it with some alternatives. We did ‘One of those days where I don’t believe in Christmas' but it didn’t sound right. Losing faith in Jesus makes much more sense when the world is turning to shit."

Regardless of the potential push back on the lyric, Osbourne says, “I think that song and the whole album turned out great."

Patient Number 9 is on course for a Sept. 9 release through Epic, and pre-orders are available at this location. In addition to Clapton, the album includes guest contributions from Jeff Beck, Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde, Chad Smith, Duff McKagan, Mike McCready, Robert Trujillo, Chris Chaney, producer Andrew Watt and Taylor Hawkins.