The one musician Ozzy Osbourne was talked into firing
Talking about all of the guitarists Ozzy Osbourne has played with reads like a laundry list of legends after a while.
Even though he may have been fired from Black Sabbath, ‘The Prince of Darkness’ certainly knew how to pick the right fretboard maniac whenever he went into a new album cycle. There was no way that any of them could have dethroned his classic material, but there’s a good chance that Osbourne didn’t want to find himself having a revolving door policy when it came to guitarists, either.
But when you think about it, was there any other guitarist who could have possibly replaced Randy Rhoads on guitar? There were certainly artists who did justice to Rhoads’ licks from time and time and managed to add their own sense of charisma to everything, but the only way that he could have ever gone beyond that is if he ended up getting someone like Eddie Van Halen in the band.
Which probably explains why someone like Zakk Wylde felt so at home playing with Osbourne. To Wylde, Iommi and Rhoads were his musical deities, and even if he had a habit of pulling off some of the nastiest pinch harmonics that any guitarist ever laid down, there was always a side of him that made sure every single thing he played was indebted to what Rhoads had come up with in his prime.
When Osbourne first started trying out new guitarists after Rhoads, though, there were bound to be a few bumps in the road. Bernie Torme was a great guitarist, but his Hendrix-esque look wasn’t going to do him any favours on the road, and Brad Gillis was always going to be a journeyman before eventually going back to Night Ranger. When Jake E Lee walked into the room, though, everything felt just right.
In the grand scheme of things, though, Lee ends up getting swept under the rug by many hardcore Osbourne fans. Albums like The Ultimate Sin might not be the most celebrated records in Osbourne’s discography or anything, but riffs like ‘Shot in the Dark’ and ‘Bark at the Moon’ are more than enough to put him in the conversation of the greatest guitarists that Osbourne ever had.
But while Lee was unceremoniously let go by Osbourne’s management, ‘The Prince of Darkness’ admitted that he never wanted him to go in the first place, saying, “The way it went was, Randy Castillo, my old drummer, had started to turn me against him. It was very sad because I had no qualms with the guy. He was a great guitar player.”
And it’s not hard to see why he would love keeping him around. Lee could play music to his heart’s content in solo projects if he wished, but the strange techniques like playing harmonics that go off of the fretboard is the kind of fun idea that was enough to separate him from what Rhoads had been doing, and there’s no way of knowing how he could have kept things going had he been able to stick around.
Given where Osbourne ended up, though, it’s safe to say that things worked out for the best. Lee did eventually have his own solo acts like Badlands, so maybe it’s better to have the guitar wizard doing his own thing and for Osbourne to eventually make his grand return to the limelight on tunes like ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’.
