Zakk Wylde let us in on the fact there might be trouble in the Wylde/Osbourne camp in this article. In the article, he said that Ozzy has brought in songwriters and were basically throwing Zakk's stuff to the side.

Well Ozzy just talked to Classic Rock Magazine where he said this:

"Well, I'm getting a new guitar player as we speak," Ozzy told Classic Rock, "and everyone has been saying to me for a long time, 'Get Johnny 5!' And I tried him at one time and I didn't really give him a chance. We'll see, I don't know. I haven't fallen out with Zakk, but Zakk's got his own band, and I felt like my stuff was beginning to sound like Black Label Society. I just felt like I wanted a change, y'know?

Ozzy has a great ear for what will work on American radio and thus sell records. Take a look at his 80's records with Randy Rhodes and now with Zakk Wylde. He just has it, but I fear that bringing in external songwriters will cause fans of Ozzy problems. In a way, that is selling out and I don't think he needs them.

John 5 might be a good fit, but I don't really know. He's more of an industrial type guitarist (Rob Zombie, Manson), which doesn't really fit Ozzy's style.

I recommend Slash. Slash isn't doing anything with VR on hiatus and Ozzy and him teamed up in Norway. Check out that collaboration on Paranoid below: