I will always have respect for Bob Daisley. He is without question, the Bernie Taupin to Ozzy's Elton John. At the same time, I always have to look at him funny. Like, dude. Sharon being a problem was not some revelation you discovered 20 years down the line (like it was for the rest of us). You knew she was bad news right then and there. Yet you still kept coming back. Even Lee Kerslake saw The Sign went back to Uriah Heep. I mean, I'm glad you came back and we got many great albums cos of you, but still, you got no one to blame for the repeated abuse but yourself.
And yes, Robert Trujillo re-recording your bass lines was bullshit and the worst thing he's ever done. (yes that includes Lulu). I look at Ozzy's relationship with his musicians as a two way street. His musicians gave him musical credibility and songwriting he clearly could not get on his own. At the same time, Ozzy gave his musicians a street credibility that they couldn't get anywhere else.
I love Randy Rhoads, but if Ozzy hadn't discovered him, he'd be a forgotten hair metal guitarist. No way does he become the patron saint of guitar students for years to come. Now by the same token, if he had lived, he'd be persona non-grata to the Osbournes. It's easy for Ozzy now to be all "Randy saved my life, I miss you so much" since Randy's not here to give his side of the story. Hell, Randy was going to leave after the Diary tour and Ozzy clocked him for it. Did Randy save Ozzy? Yes he did. But after Randy died, Ozzy needed to be saved again! He certainly wasn't going to go crawling back to Black Sabbath. Not in 1982, even after the Dio/Sabbath split.
So who saves him again? Jake E. Lee. A guitarist and songwriter just as good, if not better than Randy Rhoads. But you don't hear the Osbournes or guitar magazines fawning over him, (they occasionally give the song Bark At The Moon its credit, as they should) do you?
Without the touch of the "Prince of fucking Darkness" (I really hate that moniker for him), every one of Ozzy's guitarists gets lumped into the same category as all the other 80s hair metal guitarists. Now personally, I vehemently disagree with the notion that Ozzy solo was ever "hair metal." He was always classic/heavy/trad metal the same way Riot, Manowar, and Manilla Road etc, were. I also am not an edge lord teenager anymore (much as I sort of wish), so I recognize that while hair metal wasn't ever my thing, I of course acknowledge Ritchie Sambora, Warren DeMartini, George Lynch and others as the elite musicians they always were (not CC Deville though, fuck him). That being said, I don't believe any of those musicians that helped Ozzy became what he became deserved to be unpaid and swept under the rug like they have either.
I certainly hope that Ozzy acknowledges every musician that helped him along his way when he gets inducted into the rock & roll hall of fame, but I also hope he doesn't even show up to that stupid boomer pyramid scheme. Maybe Sharon can shit into a bag and mail it to them like she did to Tony Iommi a quarter of a centuryago. Why not? Janice Weiner thinks women can't speak eloquently about music.
Thank you Bob, Lee, Randy, Jake, Tommy, Rudy, Randy C., Mike, Zakk and everyone else for what you contribute to the Ozzy Osbourne solo story.
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