From 1982 to 1987, Jake E. Lee served as the guitarist in Ozzy Osbourne’s band, with Lee’s run with the legendary singer coming to an end after he was fired via telephone by Ozzy’s wife and manager Sharon Osbourne.
Since then, Lee hadn’t seen Ozzy in almost 40 years. That changed, however, when Lee performed at Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s farewell show “Back to the Beginning” last month.
In an interview with Guitar World following Ozzy Osbourne’s death on July 22nd, Lee spoke about his firing and how he hoped to one day reconcile his relationship with the metal icon.
“I did always want to reconnect with him on whatever level. Not necessarily musically, but that would have been nice. I didn’t want it to end with getting fired and feeling like there was bad blood,” he said.
Lee continued, explaining how being fired made him feel: “I never really took it personally. He said some things about me, but I never said anything bad about him. I stated the facts – I got kind of screwed over on the ‘Bark at the Moon’ record. But I knew it was a business move, and that it wasn’t based around f*cking me over.”
When asked why he thinks he was fired, Lee clarified that he believes it all came down to money.
“Getting as much money as he could! And when he fired me, the feeling I got from people in the industry was shock,” he said. “He talked some sh*t about me; but I always assumed he did it because he needed to have a good reason for getting rid of me.”
Despite this, the guitarist says he tried to avoid publicly feuding with Ozzy.
“I never really fired back because I knew I’d never win. Getting into a fight with Ozzy Osbourne through the press, he’s gonna win. And I still liked him, and I still liked Sharon.”
Even all of these years later, Lee doesn’t hold a grudge.
“Money has never been important to me. People don’t believe that; they say, ‘Yeah, right!’ But it really doesn’t… Money corrupts so many people. I never let it corrupt me. If I wanna do something I’ll do it, and I’ll see if I can get paid for it.”
