Ozzy Osbourne 1948-2025

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Welcome, Phil. Let's just jump into this, man. We put together this motley crew, no pun intended, of music moguls and veterans here to discuss Ozzy. of course, passed away a few weeks ago. And it's crazy on our algorithms. It's still all Aussie on Instagram. It's still Aussie tribute and this and that. It's just crazy.

How much his passing affected so many people in so many different genres. It is. Big time. It's overwhelming. You just said that just now, Chris, and I still, it hasn't really hit. It hit, but it didn't hit. It can't be true to me. Ozzy's a staple.

you know it's a staple in all of our lives and all of this has been said but my god it's still now and plus we're also hearing all these songs and all these great tributes to him it was really like losing a family member it really is i feel like that yep i think i think we all do by the way yeah you don't leave it it doesn't leave it doesn't leave it's funny i just saw a video of james brown birthday in 1993 video tribute

And it's all these funk artists and Aussies involved in it doing funk music. Of course he is. Involved in everything. But go ahead, Robert. No, it's absolutely surreal. But he's a fixture in society, not just our world. Yeah. He's like transcended so many different social situations and, you know, who doesn't know who Ozzy is? Nobody. Yeah. The most famous heavy metal, hard rock artist of all time.

in so many ways and just to go through the rose gallery we've got frankie from anthrax robert mason from warrant phil susan from last in line brian slagle uh from metal blade records here so let's just kind of go through this a bit because it's crazy frank i was going to text you

after watching you with anthrax and then in the all-star jams at the back to the beginning and i didn't even have a real chance to to text you before ozzy passed away so first of all how awesome was that show for you getting to play not just with anthrax but getting to play with all these amazing soul artists including the career-making performance of youngblood which just blew him out of the water in so many ways

It was surreal, obviously. Look, the whole setup, let's remember this. We've known this for a while, that we were going to play this thing, this thing was happening. That alone is a lot of pressure for everybody, everybody involved, because it's Sabbath. It's where we live. Right.

We wanted to do our best. You know, there were songs going back and forth. We really didn't know what song we were going to play until like a week and a half before. So because other bands came in and wanted these songs and it was really tough. So thankfully we settled.

They settled on Into the Void for Anthrax, which came out great. I was very happy with our performance. I'll tell you, man, Chris, backstage, it was more like a hang, a great vibe hang. There was no competitiveness. It was all for one. big cause it was for this thing uh and saying thank you that's the vibe that was backstage well everybody hanging out getting to see everybody after so long

And just saying thank you to this amazing thing that's been in our lives, for all of our lives. Yeah, Lars called it heavy metal summer camp. Yeah, totally. Yeah, it was great. I saw Lars. So James, I haven't hung out with James in so long. It was great to catch up with him on the side of the state for half an hour. We're talking and then we get to play. Then this all-star thing comes up and Youngblood.

To be honest, I didn't know him before. I did some background research on him, great singer, all of the above. But I knew it, dude. When we went to rehearsal, Youngblood just comes up, Frank! I guess he's an anthrax fan. I didn't even know this, which is awesome, right? So it gives me a big hug, the warmest, sweetest guy in the world, right? So we start this thing, this rehearsal thing, and man, let me just tell you, he knocked it.

from that point on he just did the same performance in rehearsal that he did at the stadium and he just brought it and you just felt it was like a jagger he's got this jagger vibe to him like this mick jagger uh star thing to him uh you just want to watch hang so look i was happy to be there it was a great great night i'll never forget that audience participation vibe when he just kind of did that freddie mercury kind of vibe it really feeling that

crowd thing from from the stage was overwhelming to say the least and all i could think was i'm so happy that black sabbath and ozzy see this and that's really all i saw and that's all i thought i was so psyched about it I went off. I'm still on a high from it, to be honest, because people keep reminding me, you know.

now we've got some guys here that played with ozzy and there's so much to talk about so we'll jump around when we can phil you obviously were with uh ozzy on the ultimate sin record and tour so many great band members over the years in so many configurations. But I think the Ultimate Sin Record was one of the best lineups to Jakey Lee, Randy Castillo, and yourself, especially for that mid-80s.

It's not pop. It's not glam. It's just fucking Ozzy, but it's such a great period in his career. Yeah. I see that as a, I mean, I see Ozzy's career as having gone in three chapters. The first chapter where he was the. bat-biting Satanist of the underground heavy metal movement. And everybody was convinced that he was the devil incarnate. Here, probably not as big as you would think in Britain. I think quite underground.

Black Sabbaths were always underground. They were always there. But, you know, metal has this tendency of going underground and then coming to the surface and going underground, but it's always present. It just happens to be in different states of recognition. The second chapter of Ozzy's career I think was a pivotal moment when he went from that to being a household name.

And that happened as a result of The Ultimate Sin. It happened as a result of Show in the Dark. And so when that song came out, all of a sudden, it was his first commercial hit. pegging the MTV charts. I think we were number two for six months. We were all over the radio stations, and it really transitioned Ozzy Osbourne into a household name, into a commercial recognized name.

After that, of course, came the TV show and all of that, which sort of showed him his kind of humorous tongue-in-cheek side. But for me, being part of that pivotal moment was remarkable. And just seeing how it was almost like a... I flew on Concorde one time, the plane, and when you take off, they can't fly supersonic over land because it would destroy all the windows and shit.

So they sort of fly at a sort of normal speed. And then they say, once we're over the coast of Ireland, we're over the ocean, we're going to accelerate. It was the same as that. All of a sudden, the plane just goes, and you feel like you're taking off times three. Same thing with Ozzy. There was this career, and then all of a sudden a single comes out, and a whole new world opens up. I think we were all surprised, including Ozzy. And that really...

cemented him into the public eye as a household name, as somebody who was a personality. The third part of his career I think is probably the most important, where he sort of went back to revisiting. who black sabbath were who early ozzy was with the additional artillery of commercial success and that all of a sudden started influencing all of these bands i mean it started with the grunge thing and then it went on

And that's his legacy. That's where you see so many bands like you guys have been talking about. so many bands in this world who have a direct tie of influence to someone like ozzy that is his legacy that's what people are going to remember him for and those bands are going to be there for a long long time into the future And they're going to be protecting his legacy a long time into the future. So it was quite a roller coaster ride in a simple sense.

it was great times robert let's uh talk to you here i think your story uh with ozzy is one that people kind of know but i've never heard it from you and this is you were ozzy's backup singer but like the wizard of oz the man behind the curtain look let's talk about this because i don't think anyone i've never heard this story before although i know that you did did this quite literally

Mostly because I didn't talk about it for 20 some odd years. The shortest version for the sake of this episode, because it would be a few, is that one day... Sharon got the idea, apparently, the way I understand the story, Sharon got the idea to use a live human to do background vocals on tour for their Osmosis record tour, 95, 96. They played some theater shows in the States.

And I knew about that and didn't go see any, but I knew the record had come out. I was in Arizona doing sessions in between bands at Liberty, as they say. And she started calling around, you know, like, what do you do when you're looking for a live background vocalist for a rock tour?

you go call producers you know she called max norman she called keith olson she called around you know people and i had made records with keith similarly to no rest for the wicked we had done that that first lynch mob record uh right my first link with Keith and I was doing sessions for Keith Olson. So I knew everybody around a couple of producers, a couple of engineers. Apparently this is again, what I understand from the phone call I got later.

My name came up three out of the four first phone calls she made. So the fifth phone call was to my place, to my house. And pretty much she explained it that way and said, look, we're going out on a tour as long as you can do it. As long as you can commit to this, please do.

You're who we want. Let's work out the details and do it. And after a short period of time, I was on a plane to Copenhagen or Stockholm or something like that. I don't know, from Arizona. And it's funny because the day before, I get FedEx. with my plane tickets, physical paper plane tickets. Remember, this is 95. November 95, right after Thanksgiving. And CDs, a stack about so high, which is credit to his catalog.

every Black Sabbath and Aussie CD and everything. I'm like, I have one. Ever hear this? Here's a blizzard of Oz. Listen to this. Wait. Boy, I better brush up. I spent the whatever it is, 17, 18 hours or whatever it was with a set list of 17, 18 songs and listening to these CDs. It's like, this is amazing. I landed, slept a few hours, woke up.

car was waiting to take me to the arena and uh got a laminate made and met everybody i had met oz before and i knew zach from back home and randy just you know geezer was playing bass that was like what a trip I'm singing background vocals in half of Black Sabbath. But credit to Oz, because he does an amazing job doing all the background vocals on all those records, like doubling and tripling his own voice. And those records sound so iconic, and that's what they wanted.

To their credit, they probably could have used rudimentary keyboard samples at the time or something like that or tapes or whatever. They didn't want to do that. They wanted a real-life human. I ended up not doing that gig that night, sitting around talking to everybody. The next day,

i showed up for soundcheck did two songs and uh and oz looks over to stage right and just goes you're in and just walks off and i'm like 11 months no rehearsal just two sound checks yeah yeah man two songs and soundcheck i think we did god i don't know in perry mason probably because there were a bunch of keyboards and that was the new record so that was a single that they wanted to get right there's a ton of backing vocals it was so cool i mean

And that song on that tour was called Robert Mason. Well, they, okay. So a couple of months into the tour, we're in the state, we're back in the States. I had a pipe and drape, like I had a tent made out of scrim and tubing that was offstage right, just at the deck level. I had about a foot and a half to look across the deck to see him and the band. So I was like staring up at geezer half the time going, Terry Butler. Oh, my God. Right. And.

doing backgrounds but you know oz will go like i want to see a crazy crowd and like go like this out in the audience yeah and i'm like i have to have line of sight with this guy because i don't i want to shut up right right and let him do his things like if he's not going to sing It was a time before all this social media, of course, and smartphones and internet and all that stuff. It was largely a secret because, again, to Sharon's credit, the press would have a field day with Ozzy.

you know he would trip over a rock and fall funny and go oh my god he broke aussie's got this or he's like you know and they would just ride him so hard in the press yeah that she wanted to keep this quiet because in all honesty it was me doing

vocals doing all the harmonies on those records every once in a while I would double the chorus you know if there's nothing to do like I bore easily so I'm like what can I do I'll sing this part too you know doesn't Bernard Fowler do that for for the stone yeah for Mick yeah eric singer did it for paul stanley too on the last couple kids there you go and you know i was kind of the the secret weapon but the crew a couple of weeks into the tour in the states i hear the crew

Who's that guy singing backstage? All right. This week's match of the week recap is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more.

All right, let's go back to March 30th, 2003. Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington. WrestleMania 19. My first official match with Shawn Michaels. And the card was stacked as well. Rock versus Austin 3. There was also Hulk Hogan versus Mr. McMahon. And the main event championship match between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle.

It's interesting because a lot of people say that Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho stole the show that year, had the best match at WrestleMania, which is amazing. How many WrestleManias has there been? 42, 43, something like that. So there's only been that many matches. that can say they had the best match at WrestleMania. And I kind of tend to agree. I think Shawn versus Chris was an all-time classic. Obviously, Shawn was a huge influence on me.

When I was in high school, first starting to get into wrestling and starting to think about wanting to be in the wrestling business, Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and Ricky Steamboat were my three kind of big inspirations. And I remember I was in WWE for years, obviously, and we had done a highlight reel with Sean and Chris probably back in December of 2002, I think it was, maybe.

I don't even remember what the point of it was. It just ended up with Sean super kicking me. And when we went back through the curtain into Gorilla, I remember Vince McMahon said, do you smell that? And I said, what? He goes, that smells like money. So then it was kind of put into gear that Jericho versus Shawn would be at WrestleMania, WrestleMania 19. And this was when Shawn was originally first coming back.

he had been hurt if you guys remember i think he did summer slam against hunter and then he was kind of like thinking maybe i'll just be done with wrestling for a while but um be done with wrestling forever but then we started to to think about this program, and it was kind of another step to Sean coming back and having this amazing career resurgence in the early to mid-2000s.

In the Royal Rumble in January 2003, Sean was the number one entrant and I was the number two entrant, but Christian ended up entering wearing my gear and I attacked Sean from behind. We started the angle there. to get to wrestlemania and and when we got to wrestlemania it was the first time we'd ever stepped into the ring together we had never had a match before we never had a a warm-up match at a house show or anything like that

And I remember I was in like a Dick's Sporting Goods buying some under tights, like a Speedo that you wear under your tights. And I just had this crazy idea for the finish of the match. And I asked the... clerk if i could borrow a pen and the back of a receipt which she then printed out and i wrote the whole finish for the match kind of all the ideas on this receipt

And when you do a WrestleMania, you show up a few days before at the venue, at the stadium, whatever, and you kind of go over your match. And when I showed up... And Sean showed up. I said to Sean, it's crazy. I have this idea for the ending of the match, the finish of the match. And he said, well, that's crazy because I have an idea for the beginning of the match.

We listened to his beginning. Then we listened to my finish, changed a few things around, and we were done. We were out of there in 10 minutes for this match, for this WrestleMania, one of the main events of WrestleMania 19. And we had just a tremendous match. If you remember, Sean came to the ring. He was supposed to be shooting off like this confetti gun that didn't work or this fire gun. And he ended up just kind of throwing it on the ground. But we had the match. And I remember I was...

Like thinking, maybe I should win this match. It was kind of like the mentor and the student and the teacher type of a thing. And we had put together all of these videos of some of my early matches where I used moves that were directly taken from Shawn Michaels matches. And we kind of showed the comparison of the two. So it was a real kind of like Shawn was my hero. But now, you know.

I've got to end my hero and that sort of thing. And I was thinking maybe I should win. But then Vince and Pat Patterson, who was very involved in the match, thought it was better for Sean to win.

And I was just thinking, I need something afterwards. And Pat came up with the idea of kicking him in the groin after the match, which we all loved. And it was such a great moment of... you know, Sean kind of a two brew tie, you know, getting kicked in the, in the, in the, in the balls and the groin and then kind of falling to his death kind of.

you know, melting down my body, which we kind of recreated with Sammy Guevara and Chris Jericho a few years ago. Of course, I didn't sell it half as good as Sean did, but we put together the match, and I remember one of the big spots was... something happened. I know what it was. I gave Sean the forearm and then I did the nip up and then gave him a super kick. I don't think I'd really done too many super kicks. I hadn't done a nip up.

in like 10 years and i was super nervous that i wouldn't be able to do it and you can see when i do that nip up in the match i'm so excited that i did it and it's one of those rare matches where there was no mistakes everything was crisp everything clicked And it was just a great, great, great match. And I do think it was the best match at WrestleMania 19. Humbly speaking, Sean is just the master.

He's the best big match performer probably of all time. I think Kenny Omega is a close second, but just an amazing performance, an amazing match. And the crazy thing was we had, I think, one or two more matches around that time frame. And then that was basically it. We didn't touch again for another five years until we had the classic Shawn Jericho feud.

where I was suit and tie a guy, Jericho and the hypocrite and Sean's wife and all of the things. So this was kind of the precursor to that. And I remember when we came back, one of the agents said that you had gone too long. And I remember Sean saying, when you have.

a five-star match like that one, you can tell me I've gone too long. And until then, shut your fucking mouth or shut the fuck up or something like that. And I was like, oh, the old Shawn Michaels is still in there. But we had mutual respect for each other. And like I said, it's... One of my all-time greatest matches and something I'm very proud of and like I said the fact that we

Stole the show and had the best match at a WrestleMania is something that I'll always take great pride in. And it's very rare. Like I said, there's only 40 or 40 some odd matches that can claim that. with all of the WrestleManias that there's been, which I have to find out how many there is. I think there's 41 WrestleManias. So yeah, so only 41 matches can say that they've stolen the show.

at a WrestleMania, although now they have two matches, two WrestleManias in two nights, but this was back in the days when they only had one, and Sean and I did it, so very proud of that match, and I'm glad I got to share some of those memories with you guys.

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brian let's talk um obviously you're you're a music heavy metal mogul let's talk about ozzy's influence on the whole scene and and and phil mentioned it earlier and kind of on the modern bands but you started metal blade records in the early 80s ozzy was already solo at that point in time i mean what's ozzy's influence on you and basically on metal blade in so many ways well i mean

So first and foremost, aside from you, Chris, I don't think any of us would be here for Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. I mean, they basically created a genre that begat. you know all of these bands and of course there's not one single metal band whether it's a guy in his 50s or a guy in his 20s that isn't a huge black sabbath fan or ozzy osbourne fan and knows who

he is and who they are. And that's been a massive influence. I mean, it's one of those things where I think when he passed, we were all kind of like, wow, that's like the guy that really created what we're all doing.

and he was always around and now he's not here anymore it's kind of was it's like you said it's almost like losing a family member because he was that close to to all of us because of his influence and what he did so yeah i mean none of that stuff would have happened i mean all those you know if you go back to metallica slayer just every band that's why they were all there

back to the beginning because they all were like, hey, you created this for all of us to have this amazing life and all this amazing music that came out. It all begats really to Ozzy from day one. Right. Yeah, massive influence.

frankie you um had the the honor of opening for so many great bands and touring with so many great bands over the course of anthrax's career you guys toured with ozzy i think it was no rest for the wicked tour how was that for you you know you're in your early 20s, hanging out with Ozzy when he's at his crazy period. What did you learn what to do and what not to do from Ozzy during those shows?

I just watched it happen. Backstage was crazy because Ozzy was very much into it. I remember on a Stairmaster every day, you walk into Ozzy's dressing room. He's like, I've got to get in shape. He kept saying that. He just wanted to keep going. So full of energy.

That's the great thing about Ozzy. He always had that great energy. You know what I mean? He didn't want to disappoint. That's the great thing about Ozzy. It was all about the fans all the time. That tour specifically, I remember Zach still had his boots on.

Straight out New Jersey, you know, the whole New Jersey thing, man. It was great. Jamming with him in the dressing room. That was a great, great talk, especially for Anthrax. Ozzy just took us in and let us have it. You know, it was just one of those things. That's why he... We made so many bands open for him and gave him a career. Look, I'm in debt. I'm indebted to him. I miss him. Look, the week after the show, we did this Comic-Con thing. Right. It was very surreal for me.

I was a little choked up because I still remember Scott, guitar player Scott, Randy from Lamb of God. We went in to say hello to Sharon and Ozzy. And this is in Birmingham, this Comic-Con. Birmingham. Yeah, the week after they did Comic-Con. It was great. It was wonderful. So we just... went in for about a half an hour just talking and ozzy i'm telling you man he was joking he was like just

having a good time. I mean, he was coming up with the great lines we're talking about from, remember when he shaved his head and he just, he just did that whole thing. He, no, he just showed up with that because Sharon said, I didn't even know he did it. She had no idea. He just showed up at the show like that. And he was laughing. And I left there saying, I think we're good for a while. I left there saying, I think we have some more time here. I was really psyched.

And I left on a high because I really thought that we had some more time with him. So when I got the text about what happened, it blew me out of the water because I did not see that happen. No way. It was a crazy, surreal thing. But I am glad that I had the chance. to have a laugh with him and say thank you yeah like from my heart thank you for for making us making us be here and that's the truth and he's very he's grateful for that there's a he was just a beautiful person

phil how did you get into to the aussie camp uh back in 85 or 86 or whatever it was well i i sort of knew everybody i knew sharon i knew her secretary quite well i knew aussie i mean london was a very small scene We all sort of knew each other. It just became evident at one point that they needed a new drummer and they auditioned Randy Castillo, who was a friend of mine.

From way, way back before, from when he played with Lita Ford, I'd been friends with Lita for a long time. I remember I thought I'd surprise him. I picked him up from the airport and took him to another airport and dropped him off, and we had a beer in the middle.

And just a few weeks later, all of a sudden, he calls me and he goes, I think Ozzy's looking for a bass player. And I said, no kidding. He says, no, no, I think so. At the time, I was actually playing with Jimmy Page. We were messing around in the studio with a band.

just just getting back into playing he was trying to get back into playing and i think that band eventually turned into the firm and in the middle of this i did a gig with this english guitar player that was on a live show and i get back to the house afterwards and it went really well and the phone rings and it's uh sharon's secretary and she says here somebody wants to talk to you and puts ozzy on the phone and this voice is like

Meet me at fucking Spirals in half an hour. I'll see you then. That's pretty good. So I go and meet him at Spirals, which is a local wine bar that we all used to go to. in hampstead i sat down had a talk with him and he said to me hey you know just saw you on that show it was great do you want to do you want to come down have a play and i said gosh yeah i'd love to i was very excited about it and

I went home the next morning. I get a phone call, and it's Sharon. She said, I don't know what Ozzy told you last night, but he was drunk. Whatever he said is all off. I went, okay. A few weeks later, I was visiting a friend who worked for Jimmy in Brighton. We were just wandering around. He's a good friend of mine, his daughter, my goddaughter, and we were just wandering around.

go past a joke shop and this guy comes out and bangs into me and it's Ozzy. And I said, what are you doing? He goes, well, what the fuck are you doing here? I said, well, you're visiting my friend and what are you doing? He's, well, we're still looking for a bass player. How come you never came down?

I said, oh, okay. I don't know. I mean, all of a sudden I saw that there was some kind of strange disconnect going on. So he said to me, look, he said, go up to London, get a guitar, come down and have a play.

and i said all right this is for real right i'm not going to get a call that says a service station on the freeway saying hey you know what all bets are off i don't know come down and then basically uh i came down and i played with them and it went on for a few two or three weeks on and off there was a couple of other people in essence it was an audition process i think it was my birthday and uh he came into the room and he said

card for you open it and i said okay thank you open the card i said okay i'll open the card and then i opened the card and it said happy birthday when he goes open it up i said okay i opened up this is you old fart And this is the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He started cracking up laughing. Fucking funniest card I've ever fucking seen. And then he turns around before he leaves the door. He says, oh, by the way, you got the gig if you want it. And that was how I got it. So it was kind of like.

It was a very memorable moment, and that's awesome. It completely elevated everything that I had been doing from that point, and it just began. a springboard into the beginning of my career for which I'm eternally grateful. And it was such a special, special time for me. I too feel like everyone else here. I feel like a book is closed. It's not.

It's not forgotten, but the book has been closed. It's been finished. It's like writing a biography or something. It's now closed. I was really, really glad that he was able to do such a fantastic concert to mark the end of such an incredible career. Sometimes you hear these horrible stories about some legend and one day they pass away in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere. It was just such a great feel-good moment, an emotional moment to see everybody coming together.

and playing in that way and marking. And you could see it in his eyes. It must have been an incredible feeling that he had. It's amazing. It's almost like he got to preside over his own funeral, a celebration of his life in front of... the fans who he loved and and and people watching in the millions i mean i was thinking about that like it's weird because it the same thing happened with lemmy lemmy had his birthday party his 70th 70th birthday party

yeah i was just going to mention that and the other weird thing about that is that 17 days after lemmy's party he passed and 17 days after back to the beginning ozzy passed so yeah is that right yeah what is even 17 days because i played at his concert at the at the whiskey his birthday i was there too it wasn't 17 days after that phil 17 days after the last motorhead gig which was about a week before his party

But it's the same thing where Lenny got to be there. And remember, everybody was there playing all-star jams. There was videos. Everybody was there. And then he passed away literally a week, eight, nine days later. it's like we should all be so lucky to be surrounded by our friends and have everybody telling us you know how great we are yeah before we pass away i just thought that was kind of you know i don't know if cool is the word but just it's a very satisfying way

to die i think what do you think robert and he was great you know he was really great there yeah i think we're all kind of you know we all heard rumors wasn't gonna give you a couple of songs or you know it might be bits and pieces here and the fact that he did eight songs and sounded great nine

Nine songs. You're right. And sounded amazing. I was, we were all like, I didn't go, but I was watching the stream with some friends of mine and we're all like, wow, he sounds incredible. I did not expect that at all. Yeah. That was really good too.

And even his drive, as he was singing, you guys saw this as he was trying to get, he wanted to get out of his seat. His leg was moving back and forth. Totally. And I just felt, I just wanted to get up there and help. Let's do it, man. Let's just do it. You know? Yeah. It just shows you what kind of. soul he had. It's all for the show. It's all for the fans. It just made me feel, yes, that's why I love this guy. That's why I love him. He was a genuinely generous person. Absolutely.

to expand upon that robert because you once again i was going to say this before in my opinion ozzy's one of the top three greatest rock and roll singers of all time especially heavy metal for me like i think he is so underrated and it's so I was watching the the back of the beginning and kind of not chuckling but like mm-hmm because so many guys went up there to sing these songs and they couldn't

they couldn't do it i mean not being a dick but these are not easy songs to sing you saw guy after guy get close and then falter robert here you are singing for ozzy i mean that's a pretty huge task man those songs are no joke and i mean some of those melodies yeah early sabbath records are just up in the sky to your point

Watching those, we had a work weekend, so I couldn't watch it in real time. I got home, and I ended up watching the subsequent Sunday and then Monday, Tuesday afterwards, the whole YouTube thing, like many of us got to do. Credit to Axl Rose, though. Yeah, he did a great job with the tunes and shows. That's a C-sharp, kids. That's a high C-sharp.

You know, what's interesting about that is, you know, I've been doing a lot of podcasts lately and stuff all talking about Ozzy. And I keep mentioning that, too, about what an underrated singer he was, because he never really got a lot of credit for being this great singer, the front man and, you know, the TV show guy.

everything but he didn't get credit and to what you said chris you're exactly right that was the one thing that really kind of blew me away about that whole day was how many amazing singers could not really do those songs justice and they're great singers and you would think that they should be able to but it's like that it's tough even headfield had some some trouble singing those songs and again you don't realize until you see people trying to do that especially

live like how amazing Ozzy was and his register was just insane it starts up there always I mean that's the crazy thing about it I don't know his regimen if he warmed up or anything but it seemed like it just was there all the time every time I've seen Ozzy his voice was just there and how do you start there and go up you know it was just one of those great things you know he was such a melodic singer too and people discount or

like you said chris not really recognized so much and brian's the same thing it's it's absolutely true you'd hear the songs and the songs had such impact and affected all of us and the music affects you emotionally too and on top of that There are lyrics that it's between Geezer and Bob Baisley and our boy right here, Phil. Then you had Oz's voice and he would always come up with these melodies to fit lyrics to and sometimes just an inspirational melody thing.

was such a vital element that often went, not unnoticed, but unregarded as highly as the impact of the whole thing. As a singer, I keyed into that immediately. He was always one of my favorite singers. Copying some of that stuff and doing a third harmony above some of those. I can't imagine that, man. Wow.

Oh man, I love that. I honestly love that job. That was super fun. So was he singing good on that tour, Robert? Why did they feel like they had to bring you in? Immensely well. He was a noted massive hypochondriac as well. He pulled me aside. Some new flu had come out. He goes, are you okay? Yeah, I'm great. Did you hear about the new flu? I'm like, you don't have it, Oz. We've been on the flu. Come on, Oz.

And he's like, no, no. The second something comes out, I go right to Sharon. He's like, I got it. He was also notoriously low on sleep. I know he really loved during those years. And I mean, he was what?

he was just short of 50 and this was 95 96 on that tour he would have been 50 yeah yeah i remember sending around uh just short of 50. my god everybody was sending around one of the old vhs cameras you know put the tape in and things like this big it goes in a fedex box we got that in germany one of the last shows before uh we split for christmas and new year's we were somewhere in germany offenbacher hanover and this box arrives and i walk into in oz's dressing room

and he's sitting there having a cup of tea he's like i rub you know like that we sit and talk he's like what's this oh we're wishing lemmy a 50th birthday everybody's recording and it was around everywhere like when we wound the tape back and watched you know frankie you must have

were they sending do you have any recollection of this yes i did i saw james on it yeah and then like they get this clear spot of tape and we always love a happy 50th birthday yeah he did that also yeah it was awesome but i remember the big

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when robert's talking about ozzy being a hypochondriac and and that sort of a thing when you guys were doing the ultimate sin tour did you miss shows from time to time because i let me tell you the story quickly see if you remember this it was the summer of 86. and i was in vancouver it was uh the world's fair was in vancouver and my mom had agreed to allow me to go to aussie with my uncle because we were there visiting from winnipeg where i'm from

And I was so excited because Metallica was opening. And the day of the show, it's announced on the radio that the show is canceled because Ozzy is sick. And I was like, fuck, can't Metallica still play and Ozzy's band still play and J.K. Lee sings or something?

that's so nice i wanted to see cliff burton too i was a big cliff burton fan there's probably no way you would remember but do you remember at times when shows would get canceled because i know ozzy did that from time to time especially in those days We seem to be destined to never really be able to play any shows in Illinois for some reason. Every time we play in Chicago or whatever, the only time he would not do something is if...

Something went horribly wrong, like the PA would go out, the power would go out or whatever. This happened to us a couple of times in Chicago. The power went down and he turned around and said, oh, that's it. We're fucking done. That's it. We only played six songs. It's fine. That would happen. I just wanted to tag onto something that Robert was saying. I've worked with a lot of people over the years, as we all have.

And one thing I would say that's really remarkable about Arsene, very underrated, I never, ever heard that guy go off pitch, ever, not once. It was amazing. I mean, you work with people and, you know, they have a good night and they have a bad night.

and then sometimes they're not hearing themselves right, and they're pitching, they're pushing too much, going a little sharp or whatever, or they're too loud, going a little low. But he was able to pull that out of a hat at any moment, and that even applied in the studio, but live. It was remarkable. I mean, very few people have to say that about. Yeah, you know, I have a story about that, too, that I find interesting. So when, towards the end of Zack's era, when he was not...

doing so well. I went to one of the shows and I was just kind of standing at the microphone the whole time and not really moving around. And it kind of made was kind of like, wow, that's kind of sad. He's standing at the microphone and the show, you know, wasn't all that great.

So the next tour, Gus Chee's in the band. And I had heard that the shows were amazing. And Ozzy was great and the whole thing. And my buddy Blasco was playing bass for him at the time. So I was in Tampa and they were playing a show. And I hate to be that guy.

I called up Alaska and go, I hate to be this guy. I know it's the day of the show and I know how it is, but can you get me two tickets? Because I'd really love to go. I heard the show's great. He's like, yeah, yeah, no problem. We'll take care of you. I said, okay, great. So go to the show. It's amazing. He's running all over the stage, throwing water and everything. He's Aussie again. I was like, wow, this is really incredible.

And so after the show, I asked Blasco, I go, so what happened? Like all of a sudden he's back to being the old Aussie again. And he said, well, before the reason he was standing at the mic the whole time was Zach was so messed up that he would go all over the place and slow down.

So Ozzy had to sit at the microphone and follow what Zach was doing to make sure that it all worked so it didn't go completely off the rails. I go, ah, that makes a lot of sense. You wouldn't really think, you know, Ozzy Osbourne is like thinking all these different things to make.

sure it works but i had a lot of respect for that because you could easily just do your show and it wouldn't be perfect but whatever but he wanted to be so good and he wanted the experience of the live show to sound so good that he just stood the microphone to make sure that

was going to be good so that was that was pretty impressive i thought it's amazing conversely he hated to warm up oh yeah wow now we'll do a fantastic show and fill your spot on right his pitch was like otherworldly sometimes he'd hit notes on just go

you can't hear it so loud but would hate to warm up and i warm up before every show i just that's sure like your checklist last thing i do is pee before i walk on stage because you know like it's got your whole checklist of stuff you do the last few stop eating around this time so that i can you know yeah i'm not you know really really strict about that but kind of i would always warm up and it was those first few weeks of going in uh all over europe thanksgiving till christmas in 95.

And he hears me warming up through the walls. And I had spoken to Sharon. She says, Ozzy, he hears you warming up. He's like, yeah. He hates to do that. He wouldn't do it. You think you could convince him to warm up a little bit? And I'm in the band like two or three weeks, dude. I'm like.

I don't know that that's really my dream. You know what I think you want to do, pal? You know, it's not what I'm going to do. A couple of times he tried to, I don't know who talked to him or something. He was backstage and he was... sort of trying to warm up and it was something like it was like his room's right next to the band room and he's having to have a separate we come in all the time but he wanted to have his own space

and he's got a life cycle in there and he's got a pair of boxing gloves and he's hitting the wall and i'm warming up and i'm warming up in a towel because now i'm paranoid i think like everybody and i'm getting you know i go through bottom of my voice i get a little falsetto i get like the bridge in between and then i hear and i'm not i swear to you this but exactly phil i hear

And I walk across and I go into his room and he's on the life cycle. Bat out of hell and life cycle warming up. And he goes, I wanted to give a try all that woof to stuff you do before the show. And he's explained, I've got a tape, I've got a cassette or a CD or whatever from a vocal coach, but I don't really like to use it. You're right, he would come out. We usually open with, I don't know. Most of the time, we're on that tour.

That's high, man. That's high. Think of that. That's your mark. That's where the mark is for your first song. He would just absolutely nail that to the wall every night. Wow. I'm like, okay, what do I do? I'm going to do the bridge.

I think one of the things that appealed to so many people, fans, musicians, everybody, was Ozzy was just a guy. All warts out. never had any illusions of being perfect, even though he wanted to be, but we're all human beings. Like I just popped in my head. I remember we played aftershock in Sacramento and I was standing on the side of the stage with rich from Fozzie. We had to get.

personal approval from Sharon to be allowed to stand there but so Ozzy's singing fairies wear boots and he forgets the words there's only four words in the whole fucking song and he's like going home late last night and then he kind of looks over at me and he's like like i love that like just like yeah what are you gonna do

fantasy and like i just always love that about ozzy like there's no like you know if you slip and fall on stage we all have there's two ways to play it you can make a joke about it i'm the idiot which most people don't do most people just kind of get up right away and they're they're kind of mad about it like i feel if ozzy fell on stage he kind of would just be like

So what? I always love that quality about him. He just came across, especially when we saw the Osbournes on MTV. Just a guy that was lucky enough to make it. i think he just really endeared himself to people that way that's the connection right there i watched a lot of comedy i mean everything about ozzy was tongue-in-cheek and that's that's i think the thing that almost made it funnier because when he was in character at the minute he got on that stage

He was in character from the minute he got on that stage to the minute he got off. Everything was pretty much perfect, dare I say. He kind of knew exactly what he was doing. Off that stage, though, it was all practical jokes and it was all telling jokes. We went through a period where we would go jogging sometimes. It was his excuse to tell jokes. Then he started telling me the same jokes over and over again.

Oh, I told you that. Everything was humor. Everything was funny. A lot of practical jokes. Some of them you had to be careful about. the legendary rookie that gets their eyebrows shaved off. That was one thing that happened quite frequently. Sometimes you had to have your wits about you.

Before then, we didn't have iPhones and stuff, but I was a bit of a photography buff. So I always carry a little camera around and take pictures. And one day I got back to England and I went to see my mom. And she said, oh, it's great to see her. And then she said, I'm going to the store. Do you need anything? I said, yeah, can you drop this film off, please?

She goes, sure, no problem. And then she comes back, and then she looks a little strange. I said, what's the matter? She goes, I don't think I should be looking at these. And I go, why? What the hell's the matter with me? And all these pictures of Ozzy's ass spread and his genitals and stuff. And I left the camera like lying around.

I was like, okay. And then I told him he thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Don't fall asleep in the front line. No, no, no, no. You don't leave your camera anywhere.

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No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void war prohibited by law. 21 plus. TNCs apply. Let's talk about Ozzy as a frontman, Brian. And Robert mentioned that too. We've been talking about just how great. Ozzy was kind of leading the charge. And once again, I think underrated as a front man, one of the all time greatest in any genre for sure. Yeah. You know, one thing too, if you look at the early seventies videos of Sabbath, he might've been the one that invented headbanging because he's.

like banging his head i don't call anybody before that doing that it's a great point he was great and yeah always a great front man always you know I mean, you can tell when people are on stage, especially singers, like their rapport with the crowd. He always had this amazing rapport with the crowd. And it felt like he was not like talking down to them. He's just talking.

to them like like your friend almost you know we love you all all that stuff you know really great stuff that weird thing though i never got to see it live live but those years when ozzy was to the side of the stage and tony was in the middle i was that that was really

unusual to say the least but as he still did his thing you know banging his head and running around and having fun i think that's the one thing i always remember about seeing him is he always looked like he was having fun just loved to be on stage there's a smile on his face and having fun which

you know, heavy metal and black Sabbath and everything's supposed to be dark and dreary and blah, but he's up there having a great time and, you know, just super fun. It just, it makes those shows a lot more entertaining to see somebody up there really enjoying what they're doing. You tell he.

I mean, even at the last show, you could tell he loved being on stage. He loved doing what he was doing. And that, you know, came through to everybody. And yeah, he was one of the, certainly one of the top 10 front men in all of rock, if you ask me. Frankie? Yeah, I mean.

What I loved about Ozzy, you see yourself in him. He's just one of us, right? He has this amazing talent that maybe he's not even aware of or doesn't care. He has this amazing talent that's up there and just going for it and making us all, you never knew it was going to happen. When you saw the spontaneity, you don't know what kind of crazy thing he's going to come up with. Great.

that's why i'm going to see ozzy i know he's he's one of us and i'm going to support that i just want to see what happens that was a show within the show yeah that's a great point you got that element of danger with obviously absolutely so many bands don't have like a sound like in this day you never knew it was going I've been watching tons of Ozzy since back to the beginning and then obviously since he passed as well

I was watching Rock in Rio right before you got in the band, Phil, with Jake. And I think Bob Daisley was on bass at the time. Maybe he's Bark at the Moon or something like that. Jake's doing his Suicide Solution solo. And Ozzy just, he's clapping and he just stops. He gets this look on his face like this crazy fucking man. Then he goes over to Jake with his hands in the air like a monster and then grabs his hair and pulls it.

is and it's not in wrestling we can pull hair it's a work we would say he's not working he's pulled jake's hair to the ground and jake's still playing you might have seen this phil when you were in that lineup i was like oh my if someone came and pulled my hair like that i'd be like off but jake went with it and you could just see aussie was becoming aussie

And you're so like, oh, I just wanted to jump on stage and punch somebody. It was so cool. Even the famous shot of him lifting Randy. That was spontaneous, man. You know what I mean? That's a great, there's a live video of that. Like he lifted the guy. I know Randy was smaller, but my God, still at that point.

He's not a giant. Yeah, exactly. It was amazing. The funny thing was part of that that I remember and the anything can happen. And Chris, you'll like this. He got these guns made, rifles made that shot water. And there were two. 255 gallon drums under the stage dead center feeding this that with pumps feeding this and anybody remembers any of that that part of the tour he would go

it would shoot like 30, 40 feet out in the audience. Now, depending how big the deck is, he could get a band member as well. So grand these drums one night, everybody was getting it. And I'm like, Oh, shit, I'm next. It's going to happen. And it was wintertime, super cold. We're playing hockey arenas all over the place. So you get there in the morning and they're putting the boards down. Yeah, the ice is freezing.

Now, my spot is offstage right behind the subs in my tent. Now, in the music industry, the legend of the tent guy has come out. And we're like a few months of a tour around the States. And he's shooting this thing out in the audience, turns to me and just full on pulls the trigger.

These 55-gallon drums full of water, I don't know where they get these from. They're like in a different, you know, we don't travel with them. They were in a bay in one of the semis. Requisition 255-gallon drums, fill them with water to feed this thing. The most vile stream of not exactly drinking water. Non-potable. Great RV.

Like I said, I've got like two, two and a half feet to see across the deck. And he just, like a laser marine sniper, just hits me right in the face. Rolls my... eyelids back it's like it's so bad a week or two later everybody's got bronchitis we're all following around everybody's you know it's awful yeah so i'm sick and i'm like doing everything i can to get my voice to come back to sing right and he's going to do it he does it to me and just

pisses himself laughing he's laughing sword comes up after me after the show and rolls over he's like oh i got you and give me a big hug or whatever i'm like i'll get you i go to a local sporty goods store And I got a mask and fins and a snorkel to show up at the next show. and he's gonna go do it again i'm like trying to you know and i see what he's doing and he's he's shooting over past joe and he's joe holmes he's like joe's like shying away and he comes over he turns the thing to me

And now I know he's going to do it. And I've got the mask and snorkel on. I go. Drops the gun. He's laughing. He comes back after the show. That was the best ever. I couldn't even sing. I couldn't put words together. It was brutal. Phil, did you have any crazy live stories with Ozzy, the front man? I can only imagine. Well, I mean, again, for years and years, Tony Dennis would dress up as the devil and come across with some water.

for him to drink he'd always take the water have a drink and then pour it over over tony and tony would be just poor tony dennis yeah oh we might put water over my head again wasn't tony wearing the helmet too and then they put like a rubber snake in the helmet one time and i heard that story he was he was the brunt of a lot of humor

But he loved it being there. We loved him as well. He was a great guy. In his eyes, Ozzy couldn't do anything wrong. But he played along with it. I think one of the things back then was Ozzy was... Particularly like, do you remember these little glass stink bombs? Oh, yeah.

He used to be able to buy. He found stink bombs, and he found stink bombs. All of a sudden, he bought out the entire British supply of stink bombs. This is before FAA regulations. I mean, you could put in your checked baggage, whatever.

And we'd go out on the road with these things, and they would show up in the most incredible places. One of the things he did, poor Bobby Blotso, a rat worth opening for us in England, and he'd say, i've put a stink bomb under each of these kick drum pedals watch this and we would come out and immediately go

and break these things and he'd look up and he'd go, this is nothing he can do. It's not like he can get up and walk away. And these things would show up all over the place. They'd show up in hotels, they'd show up in... restaurant events they would show up in i mean just a lot of practical jokes one of the best ones he had a band i think small british band just for two three shows and he got up to

58 microphone unscrewed. It's got a little foam capsule inside. So he took the foam out, soaked it in this and put it back. And this band, this guy comes running up. The apple falleth not far from the tree. A young gentleman out on our tour. by the name of Jack Osborne, when he was about 11 or 12, would do the same thing to me, come around, throw one of those in my booth.

And then run away. And I'd find him afterwards. I'm like, really? You were the old man who did this to me. He's like, oh, no, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. I'm like, he got mad. Yeah. But dude, a little white. cardboard box filled with like three little glass ampules phil yep i still have one In a case somewhere with a bunch of other little... That smell lasts, man. We used to do that all the time. Oh, man. Yeah. And you never forget that. That's awesome. Love it. That is an olfactory time bomb.

I don't know if he ever did this, but he said to me one day, he said, you know, the best thing you could do is, you remember back then they'd have these big, big tubes that would bring, it was smoke, it was dry ice. It would bring them out. is that you put those in the tubes and then when the smoke comes out, it smells really bad.

so if he was doing that with an opening act or another actor you want to you want to play a joke on somebody you could do that i i never actually saw him do that but he did talk to me about it one time and i thought that would be

would be classic let's talk a little bit about sharon's influence on ozzy uh brian obviously running metal blade records i'm sure did you ever have bands on ozfest did you ever have any dealings with sharon oh god yes i mean we

I think we had a band on almost every Ausfest. I know I went to all of them. I think... probably more certainly more than half we had a bunch on there i mean the big one for me was the sabbath iron maiden one because that was we had two bands out on that and all my other friends were there and i mean those are

You know, Chris, my favorite band is Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, not too far behind them. So I think I went to eight of those shows on that tour and it was just phenomenal. And I try to be very careful and remain in Sharon's good graces because. You don't want to do the other way because that's not so good. But she's always been really great to us and always taking care of our bands and other stuff.

John Fenton, who's her kind of an Aussie's right-hand man, is a good friend of mine. I've known him forever. He manages a band Goat Whore for us. So he's a great guy, too. So that organization has always been super nice to us. And, you know, say what you will about Sharon, but she always really cares.

about the metal scene and really trying to make it good and trying to bring, you know, that's why they did Ozfest. Let's bring some other bands out on the road and try to get this scene even bigger. And that was a huge thing for us. Like, you know, we had bands that, mm-hmm.

weren't the biggest bands in the world, but all of a sudden you're going out and playing on these side stages at Ozfest and there's 5, 6, 10,000 people there. These bands have probably played in front of 1,500 or 2,000 at the most at the time. So yeah, it was great. Like I said, they were always really great to us. And those OzFests were just phenomenal and nothing but a huge respect for her. You've got to remember that when Ozzy left Sabbath, he was a mess.

And he was living in a hotel in Los Angeles. I had friends that were kind of around that scene. And it was literally living in a hotel, drinking, doing drugs. I mean, people deliver pizzas. And I mean, he might not have made it out if he hadn't. lasted too much longer but sharon came in and she was the one that saved him and i don't think anybody expected anything from him after sabbath and after hearing all those stories and then all of a sudden

this Ozzy Osbourne solo record comes out. I knew it would be fairly good because he had gotten Randy Rhoads in the band and I got to see Randy when he played with Quiet Riot. One of my buddies was taking guitar lessons from him. He said, we got to go see this guy. He's really good. So we went to the... star went front row right in front of randy he was unbelievable

band was not so great but randy was amazing so i thought well he's got a really good good guitar player but then first ozzy record came out we were all like oh my gosh this is unbelievable this is incredible what how did this happen you know and that was all on sharon pretty much

Frankie, did you have experiences with Sharon over the years? For me, the ultimate thank you, just to let us be part of this show. You have to realize, after all this time, the tours we've done with Ozzy, we didn't know if we'd be allowed to be part of it.

always been great to me always been very cordial in fact the last time i saw ozzy and we were tearing up we were just tearing up because we didn't know the future you know it was i just really big hug and just say thank you for everything thank you for having us and i agree with you i don't i don't know fozzy after sabbath survives without sharon she's been

the backbone and look what she's done for music really she's put him in these places and she's really built up this scene with him and i'm very grateful to sharon for what she's done for for anthrax to begin with especially the last show letting us say thank you and not a goodbye but thank you it meant a lot to me personally it's like wow it's meant so much for me to me just growing up loving ozzy and sabbath so it's a big deal

Are you feeling more fulfilled now that you're back to work? On August 15th. No. I need a vacation. See the movie that critics are saying is an awesome. Look at that. Crowd-pleasing. Fist pumping All that brawl of a film You're right about that They're coming after our family Go fix this Oh my

Nobody 2. Rated R. Only in theaters August 15th. Phil, what was it like, and I'll ask Robert the same question too, when you were on tour with Ozzy and Ozzy's band, was Sharon fairly hands-on? Was she on the tour? doing the day to day, because you got to think about once again, Robert mentioned before the spiral tour books. Now you can run a whole tour on your phone. Back then you had to pick up the phone at the arena and dial and do all this groundwork that you can't just do so easily now.

What was that dynamic when you were touring with Ozzy? I mean, I still have my itinerary from that tour, as we affectionately used to call it, the book of lies. Yeah, she was obviously fairly hands-on, but in that day and age, you couldn't do it. everything remotely so she would have to be gone to other places. She'd be in London working from there. She'd be in New York having to fly to New York to do record company business. She'd have to literally be in more than one place at one time.

and of course today you can do that with a computer it's remarkable we forget all these things but she was hands-on and you know if something went wrong or if something started going a little swirly business-wise she would materialize almost immediately And to her credit, I mean, I've seen her without going into great detail, make some incredible decisions and do some incredible things.

that very few people would have been able to do. All credit to her for being a great manager for Ozzy. She's a very tough person as well. As I said before, I actually knew her from before. I had a friendship relationship. from back then. When we started working together, you know, Randy Castillo lived in the States. So did Jake. So it was Ozzy and I pretty much lived in Hampstead. So I would spend a lot of time over at their house socially.

And we got to be pretty good friends. And I had a lot of respect for Sharon, of course, still do. She was just a great manager for him. Robert, what were your experiences with Sharon? She was the consummate pro, as Phil said, too. extremely generous and wonderful, but very protective and clearly protective of Ozzy. Like I said earlier, I touched on how the press would have a mad field day with him about anything or I noticed he felt that mother hen thing around the band.

I've seen her be so friendly and caring and like, hi, darling, how are you? How's everything? Okay. I have to be up and walking by the production office. And, you know, she sees me. Hi, hi, hi. How's everything going? Are you having a good time? Excuse me a second. You motherfucker! But a fierce business person and manager and protector of Ozzy and the whole camp and entourage and everybody.

But extremely generous, too. You know, I went out there. She would walk in the dressing room after a leg of a tour. She said, we did really well. And she'd walk in with manila envelopes full of $100 bills for everybody.

I don't know where I just go. And I mean, that's a monetary thing. No, but it makes you feel good though. But she made everybody like, look you dead in the eye and said, we did really well this past, you know, six or eight weeks or whatever, this leg of the tour. Yeah. You have 10 days off. go have fun and I'll see you in the next city. There were times I said, back to the Aussie being funny thing, we would riff Monty Python Life of Brian lines.

incessantly for probably a couple of months here between john sinclair myself and oz and he would say i'm on stage that and back to the sharon thing i do remember one time i passed him in the hallways in arena somewhere he's you know hey rob so you're having a good time i'm like having a blast it's gonna be great shows oh yeah well enjoy yourself fun's over sharon's coming to the next city

It's funny you talk about protective as we start to wind down. We were at OzFest and you mentioned Zach having some issues back at a certain point in time. And I was right there with him. We were pretty bad. And we were, and we were, I think Dallas or Phoenix or something. And we were, you know, had a couple of cocktails and Zach decided he wanted to play baseball in the parking lot back where the buses are. So Zach goes under his bus. He's got two gloves, fucking shitty gloves. He's got a bat.

and he's like you you you pitch to me and i'll then i'll i'll hit it so i throw a ball it's terrible he's laughing at me people are gathered around i'm like i'm gonna be nolan ryan on this one i throw this pitch he hits it square on It goes right over the fence into the parking lot. And Zach's celebrating, home run, it's a fucking home run. And then we hear this, what the fuck are you doing?

And we turn around and here comes mom, as Zach calls her. Here comes Sharon in a pantsuit and it's like a hundred degrees out. She's like, what are you doing, Zach? If that ball hits a punter on the head, we lose the whole fucking festival. what's wrong with you zach and then she looks at me and she goes and who the are you i'm just she goes you're a nobody you're both nobody get out of my face of here so we're running back to the bus and we're terrified grown men jacked to the gills

Open the bus, Zach. Open the bus. I'm trying, brother. I'm trying. Open the bus. Get on the bus. She's screaming at us. You know, sometimes you can't hit the keypad on the bus. It's not working. And he's like, I can't remember. Just open the fucking door. And he finally was doing a horror movie. You're trying to find the key to get in the door. Yes.

and we close it and we lock the bus door we're so scared that she's gonna follow us and we just sit down and we're just like and then we look just so laughing oh my god we're in so much trouble but yeah she was very protective of that whole thing but yeah

Okay. Last few questions for you guys. I mean, so many great Aussie stories. I'm sure you all have a personal one, maybe that we haven't discussed yet. And while you're thinking, if you need to, I'll give you one of my favorites. He came and hosted. wwe raw one year he was the guest host so he did a bunch of skits and all that sort of thing and he did one with me

And afterwards I was just sitting there. I had some time and I was, you know, I knew him a little bit, but you're still, it's fucking Aussie, right? Like, I'm not like you guys where you're like, we're in the inner circle for a bit. So I'm just kind of nervous and I'm asking. So I was like, oh, fuck, I'll ask him the question. I've always wanted to know. What did the initial stand for?

So I'm like, what do these initials stand for? And he started by saying, well, whenever I was trying to think of a title for a song, if I couldn't think of something, I would just use initials. And sometimes they just stayed.

and so i was like well what does avh stand for that's on no more tears album he says that stands for the aston villa highway which i guess is the highway going towards the stadium and then i'm like well what does nib stand for does it stand for knot and body he's like no when we were coming up with the song bill ward was playing it he had a beard that was pointed like the nib of a pencil so i just called it nib

So that's what NIV stands for. Cornelius was nib, like the nib of a pencil. And I'm like, SATO. What does SATO stand for? Does it stand for sail across the ocean? And it's like, no. At the time, Sharon and I were starting to be together, but I was still with my wife and she was still with her boyfriend. So it stands for Sharon Allen. And then he stops to think for a few seconds.

Thelma Ozzy. He couldn't remember his ex-wife's name, but it was Sharon Allen Thelma Ozzy. And I was like, I don't know if that's true or not, but fuck, that's a pretty cool information. to get from Ozzy himself. Sharon Allen Thelma Ozzy. There you go. Frankie, you got an Ozzy story?

we did that anti-social video and ozzy went to the end remember he took the big not man head off yeah and just you know they had to really try to get ozzy in one place for that you know because he's always running it's room to room it was really hard to get that was my fanboy moment it all came to me that moment right then and there growing up with sabbath nazi osborne and i said i can't believe this guy's going to be in the video that we're about to put out and it's all coming

to fruition right now. That was my, I think we made something here. I think we're doing something right here. Like we made it right when he was in the video, when he took off the helmet, it was him. It was like, wow. It was just one of those real moments. That was probably my favorite time ever. Just being next to him with my band and Ozzy, it was a very big deal to me. A kid growing up loving him.

to this day so it's a it's a sign of legitimacy for your for anthrax yeah yeah and then the video did well and because ozzy was in it right it was it was it was just a really wonderful experience so i'll never forget

brian you got an aussie story yeah you know i wasn't i didn't get a chance to hang out with him too many times but i probably was able to talk to him four or five different times over the years and it would either be you'd see him and you'd start talking to him and there's there's nobody home it's just blank and you're like okay okay you know that's gonna be a quick one but then there were other times where i talked to him and he was in

incredibly smart and sharp. And we talk about the music business and, you know, what's going on in the music business. You know, just all these things that we talk about in a very un-musician-like manner. Like, he's talking like a...

I didn't know what was going on, and he wanted to know more about what was going on. I always loved those stories. And again, like Frankie said, you're talking to him. You're talking to a guy, and then a couple minutes in, you're like, I'm fucking talking to Ozzy Osbourne about this stuff. This is just mind-blowing.

14-year-old me that I'd be doing that, I would never believe. But always super nice and super kind. Like I said, everybody in that organization and his band members and everybody always been super cool. Robert, two, so I'll make them both short. walking down the hallway in, again, in probably somewhere in Germany during that tour in 95, and his doors open. And I walk past his hotel room door, a couple doors down from mine, and I hear the, hey, Rob. So I stop.

take a walk back and says fancy fancy cup of tea i'm like hell yes i'm gonna sit it's like a day off we're sitting he's got his road case opened up with like a tv and vcr and he's got all these history channel world war one world war ii vhs tapes just sat had a cup of tea with them neither of us spoke damn near a word sitting there watching the history channel i'm like this is what my life is right now like this is absolutely yeah the other one was letterman in the summer of 96.

we'd take the show and we all go back we're staying on central park south it's now the nico it was the essex house growing up like i remember that hotel on central park south my entire life the commercials on tv you know what i mean the saint frankie gets it We get back. We're going to watch it when it airs. And it was Tony and Oz because they had adjoining suites. And my room was one down. So we all go into Ozzy's suite. We're sitting around on the bed. Mike Borden was there as well.

Ozzy loves cigars. We brought back a ton of cigars from Europe. And he brought a box of those big Churchills, big monster Cohibas that Dave Letterman smokes. We're all sitting down.

ozzy like the little robustos everybody gets cigars he passes cigars around we're sitting in his room at that hotel watching the beginning of letterman and knock on the door and it's somebody from letterman's office bringing ozzy another box of cigars oh that's cool and sitting around again just going like really yeah yeah how about you phil oh man there's a lot of there's a lot of stories i mean some of them funny and

His life mission, first of all, absolutely, Robert, maybe people don't know this, but it was a complete history buff. That was the one thing he was completely passionate about. We'd watch these documentaries. Just sit down and watch this. and you'd find yourself watching all of these things with him but um he made his life mission i think was to try to get me to get a tattoo which one thing he didn't accomplish because i don't have any tattoos but there were many occasions where

I'd find myself out the rainbow or something. You're getting a fucking tat tonight. No, no, no, I'm not getting a tat. You're getting a tat. He'd have a few drinks. Give me a few drinks.

and then go to a sunset tattoo where he invariably would end up getting another tattoo and then i would get a phone call from sharon what the is he what what did you do to him last night There was those moments, but I think one of the most endearing ones for me was that when I joined the band, he was so excited about taking somebody to America who'd never been to America before that he was kind of...

almost living vicariously through it rediscovering america and he would say to me all the time when we get there we're going to go and take a limo and it's a limo is a big stretch and then we're going to go in new york and then you got to go we're going to go to this place for breakfast we got to go everywhere we went was just like uh reliving his his first times in america

That's a memory that I can take with me and I'll never forget. It means a lot to me. I was very, very thankful for those moments, but it was a special bond that I had with Ozzy. It was a sad time when I left the band because, as we said earlier, that Sharon could be a very, very tough manager and she'd give you anything that you need when it's working and do the opposite.

I just was not really able to cut a deal going forward that was going to work for me. And I left. And I think she took that very personally. So from that point, I got to experience it. a great distance from somebody who I'd been quite friendly with for no other reason. But taking those memories of coming to America the first time with Ozzy was just amazing. It was just unbelievable. Last question for you guys. It's a two-parter. What's your favorite Ozzy song?

Or Sabbath, either one. And what does Ozzy mean to you? And what does Ozzy mean to the metal scene overall? Brian, you want to start with that? Sure. Favorite Sabbath song is Symptom of the Universe. Favorite Ozzy song is Bark at the Moon. All of us know the great J.K. Lee. I mean, again, Aussie, like I mentioned earlier, Aussie pretty much means everything.

Really, to him and Black Sabbath, I owe my life and career and everything. Because if it wasn't for them doing what they did, I highly doubt that I would be doing this. So just gratitude to them and creating something so amazing. bringing this incredible music that we all love to the world. And really, again, kind of being the godfathers and grandfathers, this whole thing. And if it wasn't for Sabbath, who knows what might have happened. So just...

gratefulness for all of that and all the things he did. I mean, you know, the other thing too is that TV show was such a huge thing for metal because all of a sudden he's a household name. Everybody knows who Ozzy is. And now all of those people are discovering heavy metal and they're discovering all the other heavy metal bands.

That was a huge moment that people don't give him enough credit for. It was like, yeah, TV show is really huge and all that, but it brought an entirely new generation of fans to this music, which, again, is just so amazing. And his personality was incredible. I'll go next. My favorite, I got into Ozzy first before Sabbath and then backtracked. So I've always loved Ozzy solo more. Dire of a Madman as a song is probably my favorite. I think it epitomizes everything that Ozzy.

is and his music when i started backtracking of course we love all the hits but the one that still gets me to this day and had i been invited to back to the beginning i would i would have i would have done it is megalomania that is such a crazy song i mean it's super high yeah if you have the right range you can do it but it's just it's like a rush dream theater prog rock bat crazy tune that's great whenever i hear it i'm like

fuck this is great and i think aussie once again i grew up in winnipeg it's a very kind of working class kind of a canadian birmingham maybe in a lot of ways but aussie was still and is still to this day kind of the most favorite artist in the city everybody loves ozzy and like we touched on earlier it's because he's just an everyman he up he had mistakes i mean

if ozzy was around now he would get canceled in a second for shooting cats and killing chickens and trying to murder his wife and pissing on the alamo and it's like he's just a guy that had a lot of flaws but had a good heart And I think we all see ourselves in him in a lot of ways. And plus the greatest romance in not just rock and roll history, maybe show business history of Sharon and Ozzy. I think that's something that's a little bit underrated too. So I just.

Fucking love Ozzy, man, so much. And it's sad to see him go, but man, that music, even up to patient number nine, his last record, I'll never stop listening to it ever. Robert, what do you think? Favorite Ozzy song? What does he mean? For me, well...

see sabbath first because i remember hearing that not really in real time but i i'm the oldest so i had to live with my parents music but i had friends with older siblings so i would we would go and you know over friends houses and listen that that stuff

way pre, obviously, pre-MTV performances, but television performances of songs or seeing the quote-unquote videos before they were really, before they were called videos. You'd watch like rock concert, you'd watch, you know, Don Kirshner, you'd watch Midnight Special. But for me... paranoid i know it's like all over but it's just because that's maybe one of the first memories i have and then going rediscovering the records and i always love to sing uh goodbye to romance

live and with it being having the privilege of being able to do that on tour it's just melodically beautiful and it's just it's it's one of those melodies the second you hear it you're like wait i've heard this before but you know this this guy invented this and you're just yeah singing along and along for the ride those have got to be mine phil i have to concur with your choice wow that's a great one but i'm actually

with robert on this i'm paranoid that was the song that kind of broke it all open for me you know as far as sabbath the first thing i remember the most memorable thing i remember and it was just different as far as ozzy solo stuff the epic nature of Diary of a Madman. I think that says an awful lot about Randy Rhoads' influence and how it goes through all those different stages. I love that. I love that track. As far as playing, I loved playing Flying High Again. I love playing I Don't Know.

Those are the two that I had the most fun, I think, playing live. And of course, you know, Bob is, I don't think he's underrated, but he's not recognized as much for how great of a bass player he is. He's a terrific bass player. Incredible. And a lyricist, too. And a great lyricist, absolutely. You know, there were a couple of bass players that were big, big influences on me. Trevor Boulder was one of them, and Bob was definitely another big, big influence. He's an amazing bass player.

so i love playing his lines you know that's what i was coming to frankie finish it off your favorite aussie sabbath and what does aussie mean to you into metal well we got lucky enough to play into the void that's always been that it's just the base joey's joey sounded great on that by the way he oh thank you yeah i i thought so he did a great job with that and um you know it's it's hard with the ozzy solo stuff there's so many great songs also

i got to play that believer we got with the jam group with the all-star group i got to play that it's all bass i know a little selfish but you know it's just bob daisley you know it's just an amazing amazing song there's just so many what ozzy has meant Look, let's face it, man. He made metal cross over into the mainstream in a big way with his solo records. Those were hits. Those songs, I don't know, you know, all these great songs went onto radio.

And I really think he opened our audience for metal in general. And look, he was the guy. He was leading the charge. You can't ask for more than that. And I have to say something. Chris, you touched on this a little bit before. One of the greatest romances. Till the end. Him and Sharon. Till the end, when I saw them at Comic-Con. You know the beauty? And it still gets me a little choked up. Just seeing her look at him and give him the hug and the kiss like it was day one.

like it was day one of their of the romance and just so that he's in a wheelchair and she's hugging him and kissing him it's just a beautiful beautiful story and i have to say that to people that that story It was just till the end. I saw it right in front of me. It's like, this is just poetic. It was poetic and beautiful. I don't think that gets enough credit, just Ozzy in general.

i'm glad he's being so he'll be celebrated forever yeah and i'm glad i'm glad he was part of our lives we got really lucky to have an ozzy osborne in our lives that's the way i look at it yeah absolutely he told me so many times like she saved my life to your point. And somebody said, now we embark in a post Aussie world, which is so strange because he's been part of our lives for.

pretty much for my entire life at least but guys it's been great talking with you we could probably talk for another three hours on this i'm glad we got to do this and and and pay tribute to the great the greatest of all time people throw on the word goat

Way too fucking much. Ozzy is the greatest of all time. I think we can all agree on that. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for having us. Thanks, everyone. Yeah, great to see you all. Thanks, guys. Nice seeing you, everybody. Be well. Thank you, guys.