Hear T-Pain’s Ozzy-Approved Cover of “War Pigs”

Black Sabbath's battle cry "War Pigs" is one of the most recognizable songs in metal. It's ranked at number five on Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest heavy metal songs. It's been used to hype up crowds of thousands at large-scale sporting events. It's also been covered by many artists over the past five decades, but now, Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne has declared one rendition as the best ever.

The Prince of Darkness shared a clip of T-Pain performing the song on X, formerly Twitter, and he has high praise for the rapper and singer. "This is the best cover of "War Pigs" ever," he says, "Why didn't you guys call me?"

For anyone who only knows T-Pain from hits like "Buy U a Drank" this is certainly an unlikely song/artist pairing. It's even more surprising when you consider that T-Pain is credited with popularizing the use of auto-tuned vocals, a tactic that rock music largely rejects. (The Netflix series This Is Pop explains his involvement in all of that.) He's always had a reverence for rock, though, and it shows on his new covers album On Top Of The Covers. The album has renditions of Journey, Sam Cooke and more. Listen to his full version of "War Pigs" below.

T-Pain responded to Ozzy Osbourne's compliment, saying: "You're always invited. Top of the list, every time!! Thank you so much. Means a lot coming from the greatness himself."

The covers collection was released early last year, so why hasn't Ozzy heard it until now? He's been busy tending to his health, with surgeries every few months and a progressing Parkinson's diagnosis that caused him to back out of the Power Trip festival lineup last fall.

Despite all that, he's determined to get back to the stage. Speaking with Rolling Stone UK, Ozzy says: "If I can't continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.’ That's what I'm working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I'll die a happy man."