A song featured on a Lexus commercial was nearly “nicked” by Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, until he realised who it was by.
The Paul McCartney song had won the Prince of Darkness over when he first heard it, with Osbourne confirming he had planned to use the song. Though he did not make clear what he would have used the song for, he was told to leave it well alone by sound engineer John Roden. McCartney and Ozzy were friends at this point in their careers, and a light-hearted letter was delivered to the War Pigs and Paranoid hitmaker when he decided not to take the song. A chance mention of the song to Roden led to Osbourne opting not to take it and, presumably, record the song or lift parts of it for future use in the studio.
Osbourne said meeting McCartney was “the most special” experience as he had “looked up to that man since I was fourteen.” The pair would meet at the Brits when Osbourne and wife, Sharon Osbourne, were hosting that year. McCartney would play the event and from there, the two struck up a friendship.
The Prince of Darkness, who died today at the age of 76, confirmed he and McCartney were good friends from then on and would often exchange emails. He wrote in his book, I Am Ozzy: “We e-mail each other from time to time now, me and Paul. (Which means I speak and Tony taps what I’ve said into the computer, ’cos I don’t have the patience for all that internet bollocks.)
“It started when I heard a song called Fine Line on a Lexus commercial. I thought, Fucking hell, that’s not a bad tune, I think I’ll nick it. So I mentioned it – just in passing – to a guy who used to work with me called John Roden, who also happened to work with Paul.
“John said, ‘Y’know who wrote that, don’t you?’ I told him I didn’t have a clue. ‘My other boss,’ he said. Obviously I left the song well alone after that.” Word got back to McCartney that Osbourne had decided to leave the song alone, and what followed was a sweet letter from The Beatles member.
Osbourne continued: “Then, out of the blue, came this letter saying, ‘Thanks for not nicking Fine Line, Ozzy.’ You couldn’t get the smile off my face for days. And it just went on from there.
“We don’t e-mail very often, but if he’s got an album coming out, or if he’s getting some flak in the press, I’ll drop him a line. The last one I sent was to congratulate him on that Fireman album he did. If you haven’t heard it, you should, ’cos it’s fucking phenomenal.”
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