Yes, Ozzy, you are.
What are your memories of meeting Ozzy?
“I first met him at the Randy Rhoads tribute show when I got to give him a high five and a quick hug. On the tour-tour, I would go hang out with him and sit in his dressing room. I wanted to be in that dude’s shadow so much. He’s a hero – he’s everybody’s hero! I just wanted to be near him and I’d even go out and sing soundcheck with the band. Ozzy is a funny dude, though. It was a dry tour because he needed to stay sober, so we were drinking a shit-tonne of beer on the down-low, worried that we’d get kicked off the tour for such behaviour. But then Ozzy sent two cases of beer to our room! We thought it was a trick, but he was happy so long as we kept it back in the rooms. We were so excited when we got off-stage because we were inside our dream matrix – I grew up with posters on the wall of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hedrix and Black Sabbath, those guys were my heroes and father figures and suddenly there we were in those posters!"
What did you get up to backstage?
“We’d come offstage so excited because a crowd kicked ass, and there’d be this knocking at the door – ‘kah-kah-KAH!’ Every time it was, ‘Uh-oh, it’s him again’, and there he’d be, Ozzy Osbourne in his stage clothes and black eyeliner, like, ‘Let me in!’ And we were like, ‘No!’ because he loved to come in and drop these little glass vials with really pungent, disgusting stink bombs and then run out cackling while we had to stay there all night! We hated it, but come on… we loved it. We really connected with them all on that tour though, Sharon and the kids – there’s actually a video of me and Jack in one of our dressing rooms.”
How did you react when you heard you were going on tour with Ozzy and Motörhead?
“I remember distinctly being told we were up for the Ozzy tour and wanting it more than anything else I’d ever wanted in my life. Ozzy Osbourne, Motörhead… Ugly Kid Joe? When we got it, we jumped up and down like those people you see in awards shows, in some shitty hotel in Houston or whatever. We were living in a motorhome at that point! All of a sudden, we were hearing through the grapevine that we could get a tour bus. We’d seen one from outside but never been in, so we walked in and it was like, ‘No fucking way’ – these 23-year-olds on tour with Ozzy Osbourne.”
What do you think of the No More Tears record?
“Do you ever get those smells that just take you back to a certain place and time? Coffee, or pancakes, or anything like that… I believe music is just like that. If I put on Diary of a Madman or Highway To Hell or Electric Lady Land, I’m so invested in those albums that I am 14 again whenever I hear them. No More Tears is a cool album; I mean come on, Lemmy wrote the lyrics to songs like Mama I’m Coming Home and Hellraiser! But it also reminds me of the greatest time in my life and being with Duffy - one of the biggest loves of my life. It was an incredibly freeing time.”
Are there any shows that stand out to you as being particularly important?
“The first show. It became this weird thing where I became Zakk [Wylde]’s beer-tech. This young, handsome shredding badass and I basically wanted to be in the Ozzy band so much I was in the shadows whenever he played! We were drinking beers together and I agreed that during the first quarter of a show I’d put beers near to where he played so he’d always have a drink. We were on tour with Motorhead too – both Lemmy and Ozzy took me under their wing and just that, as a kid it was like ‘what am I involved in?’ I love those bands so much to this day that I was never scared to be near them.”
This is without question a historic moment, not just for heavy metal, but for the entire rock scene. I'd really love to hear what it was like, how you felt after the show, and what your strongest memories of that day are.
"It was in 1969 that we wrote our first song, “Wicked World”, at The Railway pub in Nechells, Birmingham. We only had that one chance because the landlord said we were too loud and didn’t invite us back. The song had a nice swinging hi-hat intro courtesy of Bill, who loved his jazz, and Ozzy set the tone of the band with his lyrics, which were about the darker side of life: “The world today is such a wicked place/Fighting going on between the human race/People go to work just to earn their bread/While people just across the sea are counting their dead.” Flower power it wasn’t."
From Geezer Butler's book 'Into the Void'
Banger Films’ Judas Priest documentary, The Ballad Of Judas Priest, premiered at Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival in February.
Co-directed by documentary filmmaker Sam Dunn and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello in his directorial debut, the documentary celebrates the legendary band’s lasting impact on music and culture with their influence reaching far beyond metal. Featuring unforgettable anthems and pop culture staples like “Breaking the Law” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” The Ballad of Judas Priest will capture the passion, resilience and enduring legacy of a band whose music and story continue to inspire generations.
NOW Toronto is reporting that in a Q&A after the screening, Sam Dunn revealed some other tidbits that Priest fans might want to know. In the following excerpt, he talks about the Ozzy Osbourne interview in the doc:
“Really emotional,” says Dunn. “I’d never met Ozzy until this interview, and we’d interviewed all the other original members of Black Sabbath for other films that we’ve done. So, came together. It was the year before. I can’t put my finger on the specific time, but really emotional, especially what he says about Parkinson’s, telling Glenn that he needs to keep fighting, and how tragic it is that Ozzy’s the one that’s no longer with us. That’s become a very emotional part of the film to watch for me. And the fact that he’s telling Glenn to keep fighting, and he’s not here. But, what a treat to actually have him there. He’s so funny, and he brings a lot of laughs and a lot of heart to the film. I’m just grateful that he’s there to tell the story.”
Ozzy Osbourne
Zakk Wylde
Randy Castillo
Michael Inez