NME is reporting that Led Zeppelin legend, Jimmy Page, has explained why he has refused to appear on Ozzy Osbourne‘s new album.

Drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), who shares drumming duties on the album, claims Osbourne tried to get Page to contribute but said, “I don’t think he plays anymore”. Page has now explained that he refused to appear on the album because he was too busy working on his own projects.

“There’s various things I’m working towards,” Page told Classic Rock. “It’s not just one thing, it’s multiple things, and I don’t want to even give a hint, because if you do… you give a one-sentence sound bite, and then if it doesn’t materialize, it’s like: ‘Why didn’t you do a solo album?’ So I don’t want to say what it is that I’ve got planned, because I don’t want to give people the chance to misinterpret it.”

Elaborating further on his refusal to join Osbourne, Page added: “I will never be one of those people who’ll record alone and send someone a file. I never went into music in the first place to do that – it was for playing together.”

Osbourne took to social media on April 9 to share the news that he has completed work on his new studio album, the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man.

"I'm so happy to let everyone know that I finished my new album this week and delivered it to my label Epic Records,” he wrote on Facebook. “I’ll be sharing all the information about the album and its' upcoming release with you in the next several weeks."

Continuing his long association with Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde features on the singer's forthcoming album, alongside three legends in Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Tony Iommi.

Asked if he was blown away when he found out he would be co-starring alongside Clapton, Beck and Iommi, Zakk tells Guitar World: "Yeah! I was shocked when I heard it was happening and even more when I heard what they played. They’d already recorded their parts so I ended up re-recording rhythm tracks underneath what they’d done at my home studio. It came out awesome."

Others appearing on Ozzy's new record include Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), and Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age).