By Jim Barber
Author’s Note: This interview for this article was conducted shortly after the Back to the Beginning Concert, which was the last for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, but before Osbourne’s sudden passing. Morrison’s comments made about his close friend Ozzy were done in the wake of the celebratory show with that in mind. I’ve had a significant health issue that prevented me from writing this piece soon after the interview so Ozzy’s passing will be referenced, but not focused upon.
Sometimes, the best things in life, the most profound creations, the most fulfilling art are unplanned, unexpected, and sneak in under-the-radar. For guitarist/songwriter/producer Billy Morrison, best known for his lengthy tenure as a member of Billy Idol’s band, while not exactly flying by proverbial seat of his pants, much of his musical journey thus far has come from inspired moments, serendipitous timing, and being confident in following his own creative instincts. He’s allowed the muse to take the reins and be open to whatever journey it feels like leading him on.
A collaborative soul by nature, his most recent album is called The Morrison Project [TLGZOID – Virgin Distribution March 2024], it is the second part of the name on which he prefers to focus, rather than the first as there are a plethora of guests on the album, who were often closely involved in the actual writing of the material, as opposed to just ‘flying in’ their parts for the sake of name dropping, as often happens in the music business.
One of those moments of inspiration led to his most recent success. Earlier in the summer, Morrison released a new version of the hit single/video for the powerfully compelling song ‘Gods of Rock and Roll’ with lead vocals from his longtime good friend, Ozzy Osbourne. The original version, which appeared on his 2015 album, God Shaped Hole, was a powerful, intese rocker, while the album’s Deluxe edition of The Morrison Project [which came out this past Spring] featured a fuller, lusher, heavier production, including full orchestration. This new version strips things back, with a focus on the orchestration and especially on the plaintively melodic vocal work of The Prince of Darkness. It was released exclusively as a special double A side on vinyl also through TLGZOID – Virgin Distribution.
“The idea to strip it back was Ozzy’s. We shot the original video for ‘Gods of Rock and Roll’ in NRG Studios in Los Angeles, which is a very famous studio and it’s got a beautiful mixing desk. One of the things we did was we actually put our multitrack up on that desk so we could control it. And during one of the breaks, me and Ozzy and Steve [Stevens lead guitarist for Billy Idol’s band] were just sitting there messing around and I muted everything and just had the orchestra and Ozzy’s tracks. And Ozzy said, ‘you know, that’s great. You should put it out with just the orchestra and me.’ And we did a few other things when we actually decided to put this version out. Chris Chaney played bass on the original rock version, but it didn’t fit the stripped-down version. He’s now the bass player for AC/DC and a longtime friend, we’re actually in another band together [Royal Machines], and we got him to lay down this tasteful new bass line and then Steve re-recorded the guitar solo, but on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar, just to tailor it to the vibe. And it came out great, and as always, it was one of Ozzy’s brilliant ideas,” Morrison said, adding that a lot of the credit for the amazing orchestration goes to former longtime drummer for 1980s rockers Cinderella, Fred Coury, who has become an in-demand arranger and orchestrator over the last couple of decades.
“When I decided we wanted to use an orchestra, which is no small undertaking, someone suggested I get Fred to arrange it. And I was like, ‘you mean Fred, the drummer from Cinderella?’ But that’s just one part of his career, but it’s hard to lose that association. And I get it, it’s been a similar battle for me for years. I was the bass player for The Cult for about two years and I’ve been Billy Idol’s rhythm guitar player for coming up to 20 years. And yet, despite my best efforts, most headlines still say, ‘Ex-Cult bassist Billy Morrison.’ I guess it’s what pops up first when you Google me or something. If you’re a Fred Coury fan and you like everything that Fred does, you’re going to know that he’s a great orchestrator. But most music fans will only think of him as the guy who played drums for Cinderella.”
The Morrison Project originally came out last year to great acclaim, with the single/video for the song ‘Crack Cocaine’ which again featured the hauntingly melodic vocals of Osbourne, racing up the charts all the way to number one. The new version of ‘Gods of Rock and Roll’ was added as a bonus feature for the vinyl pressing of the deluxe version of The Morrison Project, which came out in early summer of 2025. There are a number of other special new songs and collaborations on the Deluxe version, including two revisions of ‘Crack Cocaine.’
The re-issue of their previous collaboration, which was planned for months, happened to coincide with the massive Back to the Beginning concert in Birmingham, a tribute to the legendary career of Ozzy, which was headlined by his deeply emotional final performance, including the wrap-up set which featured a full-on Black Sabbath reunion – the first time Osbourne was joined on stage by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler AND drummer Bill Ward in two decades. Of course, as the entire world knows, Ozzy died mere weeks after show, a loss to millions of fans, but more significantly, a profound source of sadness and grief for his family and friends, of which Morrison was one.
As stated at the beginning of this article, the conversation with Morrison took place after the show, but before Ozzy’s passing. So the comments about the legendary singer must be taken in that context, although in some ways, they are even more powerful and heartbreaking.
“It’s seemed like the Gods aligned for the release of the new version. But it wasn’t planned like that. My timeline has been set for two years. The whole timeline of the album was set. Now, the idea to do the stripped-down thing came when we shot the video, which was last year, and the whole process takes time. We had something stupid like a 14-week lead time just to physically press the vinyl record [stripped down version]. So we’d had no idea exactly what date that gig was happening. Listen, I’m winging it, Jim. My whole career is winging it. And I think that’s what gives a what I do a lot of authenticity. Am I sitting here master planning my solo career? That’s not happening. As for the show, Billy Idol had a show in Switzerland, so we had to play the same night. I was asked, and Billy was asked by Sharon, but we just couldn’t make it work,” Morrison said, adding that at the time of our conversation, he had only seen Instagram clips of the show.
The delicacy and discreet nature of his relationship with Ozzy, and the respect he has for keeping that part of their lives as private as possible is understandable and to be admired in a day and age when gossip goes viral.
“Everyone has asked me if I had spoken to him about the show. And you have to understand my friendship with Ozzy is based on our love of English candy and Monty Python. I’m not this huge Black Sabbath fanboy that glommed on to Ozzy and goes to every Black Sabbath gig. I’m truly happy for the guy and he deserves the love and the experience that he got and so much more. But you know, it was a gig, and I wasn’t able to be there. And it’s not a problem. But I am glad it happened for him,” he said.
“The thing is, it’s very difficult for me when I get asked about Ozzy because one of the reasons I’m still friends with him is I don’t do interviews and talk about someone else. I get that the whole world wants to know about Ozzy Osbourne. I believe there’s more than enough written about him and a lot of it is bullshit. People make shit up about him all the time. However, I will endeavor to answer your question [about what Ozzy is like as a human, as opposed to the ‘Prince of Darkness’ image] in the best way that I can, which is he’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever known. And I don’t mean with money. I mean with his time and his attention and his love. And he’s genuinely, probably the funniest person I know, and I’m friends with a lot of world-class comedians. Ozzy is one of the funniest people I know. Again, talking about the man, I understand everyone want to find our more about Ozzy Osbourne but there’s a reason we’ve been friends for 30 years – discretion. And I’m happy that people know I’m his friend.”
In the months preceding The Morrison Project’s original release, Morrison was in creative scattergun mode, not anticipating the release of a new record. He was writing and recording, but it took him a little while to realize that something special was brewing in the particular concoction of material he was accumulating. In the end, there is such a cohesiveness in the tone and vibe of the album, and that there is connective tissue between the songs that makes for a unified whole greater than the sum of its parts. All of this, as the introductory paragraph to this article states, came about through his recognition of when a special creative catharsis was at hand.
There is a fairly wide swath of material, genre-bending and sometimes downright genre crossing, with everything from rap to a melancholic ballad, as well as some truly ass-kicking bangers on the record. It is the core emotional thematic elements that hold it all together, especially in the lyrical content, a lot of which is about being strong, being independent, fighting for what is right – the stuff from which rock and roll has been made for 70 years.
“I didn’t know I was making an album. I was making music during COVID for no real reason at all, other than to have something to do. They were 60-second clips of music; I wasn’t writing full songs. There was no pressure to write an album, so I went off on all kinds of cool tangents. I was writing a piano ballad, and then I’d write a hip hop song, and most of what I was writing I didn’t really think would work commercially. No one would understand them but I kept writing all these things because I didn’t have any pressure. So for it to actually see the light of day surprised me as much as anyone else. And then to have the success that it had was kind of mind blowing,” he explained.
“I can fight and deny till the day I die that it wasn’t planned and people won’t believe me. But it wasn’t. I truly believe that the unplanned, organic nature of it is why it was successful. Listen, I didn’t even sequence the record properly. The order that you see is what was how it was thrown together in my studio as I was making it. I did not sequence it after all the recording and stuff was done. The organic fabric, the fibrous connectivity that binds the album together is me. Most of the lyrics are me or collaborative lyrics. All of the music was done by me, with guest artists doing sections. And it’s produced by me. So, when you have a man at the helm like me who has a very focused vision lyrically, even if the songs were all begun separately – I really didn’t start doing lyrics until I decided that I was headed towards doing an album – you get that feeling that all the songs are linked, no matter what style of music they are.
“And a lot of what I write about is each of us finding and reclaiming our own truth, whatever that is. Our truth is stolen from us in so many ways, from the politics on downwards. And all I’m trying to say with the record is open your eyes, read between the lines, don’t be an idiot, don’t believe the hype, find your own truth. And that theme is all mine. When I was 15 and a punk rocker back in the U.K. the word ‘revolution’ meant something completely different to what it means to me as someone over 50. I’ve had five lifetimes in one, so the word can mean a lot of things. I think an emotional revolution is necessary for most people. Most people grow up and we’ve all got issues of some kind, some more than others. We don’t tend to get to adulthood fully formed, you know. We’ve all got rough edges. And I think that the journey is to have an emotional revolution, to open your eyes. That’s a big phrase for me – open your eyes. Don’t believe everything they’re throwing at you just because it’s on TV or on the internet. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but you have to see that there’s a lot of clearly mixed messages being thrown at us all the time. So open your eyes, have your own emotional revolution. You don’t have to go march in the streets. I’m not necessarily advocating for that kind of revolution. I just think if people would open their eyes and use their brains a bit more, things would be different.”
Besides Osbourne, The Morrison Project also includes collaborations with colleagues Billy Idol and Steve Stevens as well as Al Jourgensen of Ministry, Steve Vai, Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes, Black Sabbath/Ozzy drummer Tommy Clufetos, current Motley Crue axe slinger John5, Daryl McDaniel aka DMC from Run DMC, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and Persia Numan (daughter of Gary).
It is because of the integral way the ‘guests’ participated in the entirety of the creative process on the songs they participated in that he wanted the album to not be referred to as a Billy Morrison solo album, but as mentioned above, The Morrison ‘Project.’
“These are all people I know and want to work with. The album that I am literally staring at in my studio right now also has a list of people and some are on there already. I’m actually pretty far down the line with this new one. There are some people, some names that I don’t know if I am going to try to reach out to. For The Morrison Project, every one of them was already in my phone. With every one of them, I didn’t need managers and agents to get them involved and get things moving. Every one of them got a text from me personally that went, ‘hey buddy,’ or ‘hey love, how are you doing? I’ve got an ask. I think I’m doing a record. I’ve got all this music. Would you sing on a track?’ And all of them, without question, said ‘yeah, of course. Send me the track.’ So that makes things easier. There are a couple of names that I’m trying to approach on this second album that I don’t actually know. So we’ll see how that goes,” he explained, later talking about the powerful performance of Perry, who is also one of the top songwriters/producers on the planet, on the closing song of the album, ‘Chasing Shadows.’
“That woman is a talent, an unbridled talent. She’s like a force of nature. And I am so lucky, because if you look around Linda Perry does not pop up on every person’s solo album. She just doesn’t. I have what I would like to think is a pretty close relationship with her. It’s quite special. So when I sent her the initial ask, would she sing, I expected her to be like, ‘oh God, well, you know we’re friends so I guess I’ll dissect whatever crap you’ve written.’ She’s really no-holds barred that way. I sent her the song, and the message I got back was, ‘I don’t want to change a thing.’ Wow. I wrote the melody. I wrote everything on that song, including the lyrics and to have Linda say there’s nothing she wants to change and that she would be honoured to sing it – that more than anything means the world to me.”
Morrison’s career is highlighted, at least for mass public consumption, by his lengthy tenure in Billy Idol’s band, his brief engagement with The Cult and his friendship with Ozzy Osbourne. But he has played in numerous bands, including L.A.- based cover act Royal Machines with former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, 1960s pop sensation Donovan Leitch, top drummer (most recently with Foo Fighters) Josh Freese and Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath, as well as the hard rock group Circus Diablo. He self-released his first solo album (which was actually recorded for a major label in 1995 but never released) called Stimulator in 2008, followed by the aforementioned God Shaped Hole in 2015 and The Morrison Project in 2024. He’s also done some acting, including appearing in an episode of the Showtime series Californication in 2011, and is not only a discriminating and educated art collector, but has also become a painter of some note himself.
There is a restlessness to his creativity in that Morrison always has to be doing something involving that part of his mind and spirit. But he’s wise enough to realize that that impulse needs to be focused and harnessed, so he knows in advance, what sort of work he will be doing on a given day, be it writing, recording, working on a video, acting, painting … or doing a Zoom interview with a journalist from Canada.
“What I’m going to be working on is decided in advance and it’s decided on an Apple Calendar, so when I actually wake up, I’m not having to make any tough decisions. I wake up and I know, okay today, the morning is going to be interviews on Zoom. And this afternoon is about trying to finish putting that song together that’s on the screen in front of me here in my studio right now. But tomorrow I will be in my art studio because I have to start work on that painting that I need to ship to the gallery in Florida. And so where the work comes in is not when I wake up, it’s preceding it when I’m looking at my calendar and I’ve got Jim Barber from Canada asking me to do an interview and I’m not sure what day I can do that because on this day I’m with Billy Idol in Monte Carlo, which is where I was three days ago. So I give myself a day to recover from jet lag, so then I know I can put Jim in at 11 on a day where I’m already in my studio. So I always have to think ahead,” Morrison said, adding that he feels happy with the arc of his life and is creatively fulfilled in so many ways.
“Is there more I would like to do? I’m an ex-drug addict, although you’re always an addict, so of course, more is better to someone like me. For me, it’s all the same shit as so many other people, food, gambling, sex – it all is trying to fill a hole, hence the title of my album God Shaped Hole. It’s a spiritual hole that we all have that we try and fill with food, money, sex, power all of that. For me, I do have the ability to work from home. I have an art studio and music studio and I am lucky enough to be able to afford to order what I want for dinner. I have everything I need to be working, to feel fulfilled under one roof. That’s the definition of success. It’s not, you know, what car I have. Things like that are toys. They are simply things. And everyone likes to buy a toy now and again, but the definition of success is not having to watch what I buy at the grocery store and not having to answer to anyone when I work. But it is work. People don’t understand, just because I wake up in my own house and I go to sleep in my own house and often don’t leave all day that I am working. I am always working. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. You know, the moment I get off Zoom from this interview, I am back to working on this song, driving myself crazy trying to figure out how that loop I just recorded fits in.”
Every song on last The Morrison Project was either written solely by Morrison, or co-written by him. He also collaborates alongside Stevens and their boss Billy Idol for his albums, but the two processes are vastly different.
“It’s different every time out. I have my ProTools open here and it’s a piece of music that has no vocals on it. When I press play and put my headphones on and listen to it, it makes the hairs on my arms stand up, so I know it’s a powerful song already. Then I listen to it and decide who I want to sing it for the next album. It may be me who ends up singing it. The song gives me a particular vibe then I send that to a singer who, out of respect, I say ‘do what you want [in terms of melody line and lyrics].’ Who am I to tell them how to write. But then there are other songs like ‘Chasing Shadows’ as I said before, which actually started with a lyric. So it depends. Most of the songs on that album started with little 30-second-grooves. I’d have a groove and I’d play a bass line and then I’d play some drums and I’d start to sing over it, often not words or full lines, and after that it usually comes together pretty quickly. I feel like I am a little bit on the [autism] spectrum when that happens because I can’t physically make my body create quick enough – I can’t get what’s in my head down,” he said.
“It’s frustrating because I can hear the end result with all the harmonies and sometimes a string section and things like that. But now I’ve got to spend a week or more putting it all together in the studio. And that’s the frustrating bit for me because my body feels so amped to get it out there. Back in the day I made a couple of albums where we used to cut and splice tape – old school. And that was just as frustrating, if not more. This is why making solo music is a lot easier for me because I’m not frustrated waiting for some bass player to get the part down exactly as I hear it in my head.”
Then there’s the process of writing as part of a team, where you’re not the captain of that team. For more than 40 years, Billy Idol and Steve Stevens have been one of the most potent one-two punches in the rock world, penning such classics as ‘Rebel Yell,’ ‘White Wedding,’ and ‘Dancing With Myself.’ After Morrison joined the band, he eventually became involved in the songwriting, but understands that this role is significantly different than the one he has as the omnipotent producer of his own work.
“I guess one of my other talents is being able to, I guess, compartmentalize. You have to understand, I have a huge fine art career. I paint. I do act from time to time. I am writing a book and I am making this next solo album. And, oh by the way, I’m spending six months of this year on the road with Billy Idol. So one of my other talents is to be able to focus and compartmentalize when I walk into the room with Billy and Steve. Bill is the boss. Steve is the musical director, and I am there to be of service to them. A lot of the time I’m lucky because Steve says, ‘you know what to play. So play, just do your thing,’ and I get to be a little creative in that particular section. But if Steve comes over and says, ‘I need you to do it like this. I need you to play that solid power chord there.’ No problem, no questions asked, that’s what I’m there to do.”
Returning to the subject of the musical diversity on The Morrison Project, Morrison talked about how, even since his early affinity for Punk rock, he’s allowed his heart and spirit to be fed by whatever music enters his orbit, and this is reflected not only in his personal listening tastes, but in how he writes and who he collaborates with.
“I am a sponge, and I still soak up what my soul needs, but that doesn’t just mean it’s rock. I mean, I am a huge David Bowie fan and some of the greatest ballads in the world are Bowie piano ballads. I loved Madonna when she first came out because of her use of sequencing and electronica. I love that stiff. Hip hop is punk rock to me, right? It’s a group of disenfranchised youths going, ‘f*** you! This is what we’re doing!’ That’s what punk rock was. So, I’ve always been a guy that is steeped in multiple genres. Whatever it is, the song just has to speak to me. I have to believe it. Guys like Cypress Hill and DMC, those guys lived it. They weren’t just entertainers, they had something to say. I’ve always believed that it doesn’t matter how you were taught to say it, what matters is you’ve got something worth saying in the first place. Punk rock told us that. None of them could really play to start with. Steve Jones [Sex Pistols] is an amazing guitar player now, but back in the Pistols he was still figuring out bar chords. But they had something really important to say and it resonated with people – and still does. It didn’t matter if they could play. So, all genres, for me, all genres have to have an element of that. Hip hop has that. Some of the angst and sexual confusion in Bowie’s early work has that. The New York Dolls – same thing. I gravitate to music that I believe,” he said, adding that even though he can bring in those different styles and genres into his own music, the constant thread is Morrison’s voice and guitar playing, which pulls it all together without the album sounding too disjointed.
“I would hope that I can put elements together in a pleasing way. I am not setting out to jar anyone. And I would never be so bold as to be able to articulate why I think my music is good. I don’t. I learned that early on. I made that whole album [The Morrison Project] and every track and video that came with it was made to make me happy. When I play ‘Drowning’ or even ‘Chasing Shadows,’ when I play those loud, I get the same feeling as when I play ‘God Save the Queen’ by The Sex Pistols. If even one person wants to talk to me about how that made them feel the same is it did me, I consider it a success. And so to see ‘Crack Cocaine’ go to number one, or see songs going into the top 10, that blew my mind because what that means is something that makes the hairs on my arm stand up also makes the hairs on other people’s arms stand up. That’s great; that’s beautiful. That’s what I used to dream of.”
For more information on Morrison’s various creative projects, visit https://billymorrison.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
