GUITARIST GEORGE LYNCH RECOUNTS HIS BRIEF TIME PLAYING WITH OZZY

Greg Prato for ultimate-guitar.com spoke with iconic guitarist, George Lynch, about his brief time playing for the Ozzy Osbourne, his reply appears in its entirety below.

(Greg Prato) ultimate-guitar.com: What was your brief period with Ozzy like and how did it come to an end?

George Lynch: Well, it wasn’t my first time up for that gig. It was my third time. So I was kind of feeling like, ‘OK, well, this time’s real. This time it’s going to stick.’ And I had time to prepare.

[Ratt guitarist] Warren DeMartini tutored me, because I wasn’t really good at picking everything apart, because Randy Rhoads’ stuff is very difficult, as you can imagine. Very unorthodox and not really right down my lane. I was just kind of, ‘What the hell is he playing here? The timing’s weird and the chord… I can’t figure it out.’ And so, Warren helped me figure it out.

And then I went in. I knew the material. And, they flew me around. I went to Scotland. I went to Ireland, England, back to Texas for rehearsals. Did some touring, but I didn’t walk on stage during the show. I’d do soundchecks with him occasionally and stuff like that. And just hung with the band. And I think they wanted to see how I fit chemistry-wise with everyone.

But they had two problems with me. Ozzy had a problem with my short hair. I had short hair at the time. And, and then his wife [Sharon] had a problem with my green guitar. She said it looked like a booger. Didn’t care what it sounded like, didn’t care what I was playing.

I go, ‘Well, I have other guitars. This is just the one I brought.’ ‘Why would you bring that?’ She kept bringing it up at dinner and at rehearsals. I was like, ‘I really do have lots of other guitars. It’s no problem. And my hair grows. And guess what? Your husband’s bald.’ Ozzy was bald at the time. But he’s Ozzy, and he can do whatever he wants. ‘And they have these things called wigs, and lots of rockers wear them. I’ll wear one of those. How about that?’ I never, I never got that chance to get past that.

So they still had me in the band, up until… About a month went by, and we were traveling, rehearsing in Dallas for a while. Then we moved rehearsals to LA. And then we’re at SIR one night, and Wendy Dio, I guess, kept pressuring him to get one of her guys. And Jake E. [Lee] was one of her guys. So, they had an audition that they didn’t tell me about, and I just showed up at SIR thinking, ‘We’re going to rehearse,’ and there’s the other guys on stage. Nobody even told me. And Jake E. was up there, not really playing very well, and self-admittedly, because we talked afterwards.

But he looked fantastic. He had this full leather body suit with all these accouterments all over it, and his hair was down to his ass. He looked fantastic. And he moved great.

So Ozzy walked back to the dressing rooms and said, ‘Hey…’ It’s hard to understand what he was saying, his accent, I couldn’t really tell what he says. But I got to the point that I was fired. That was pretty rough.”