One could argue that one of the most keyboard-friendly periods in Ozzy Osbourne’s recording career was the early to mid-1980s, especially highlighted by albums like 1983’s “Bark at the Moon” and 1986’s “The Ultimate Sin.” This era also featured one of Ozzy’s finest guitarists, Jake E. Lee.
During an interview with Tone-Talk, Lee seemingly agreed with this assessment of this Ozzy period. Plus, selected “Bark at the Moon” as the album he was most displeased with sonically.
Jake E. Lee opens up on the matter
“I remember when I first heard it, when they mixed it,” recalled Lee. “And then Ozzy and Sharon [Osbourne] asked me over to listen to it, and I listened to it, and he said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I hate it. Keyboards are loud. Guitars — they’re not driving the songs anymore. They’re too low.’ I said, ‘I hate it.'”
“And then Ozzy said, ‘That’s it! We need to remix it!’ And then Sharon said, ‘No. We’re already way too late giving them the album. We can’t remix it. We have to send this in now.’ And then she looked at me and said, ‘And just get used to it.'”
Lee added insult to injury and stated in the press over the years that he regrettably signed away the rights to writing and publishing after the album was recorded, or else, he was being threatened that his guitar parts would be wiped away and re-recorded. However, he soon realized that may have all been one big bluff on Sharon’s part.
“And then later that night, I realized, not to bring this whole thing up again, I realized if they couldn’t spend another couple extra days to remix, they certainly couldn’t have brought [in] another guitar player, have him re-record all my tracks. So, that was a bluff. She was bluffing, when she told me that. Later that night, I realized I went, ‘Shit!’ But hey, is what it is.”
Also during the interview, Lee mentioned for a short period, he almost didn’t sign this extremely “artist unfriendly” agreement. But, he ultimately decided to roll the dice and sign on the dotted line.
“And for a couple minutes, I was thinking, ‘I’m not signing, I’m not signing.’ And then I thought, ‘Oh shit, no, I have to. I can’t take the chance.”
