Adrian Vandenberg recalls Ozzy Osbourne asking him to join his band while Jake E. Lee in line-up

Adrian Vandenberg recalls Ozzy Osbourne asking him to join his band while Jake E. Lee in line-up

Vandenberg and former Whitenake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg was recently interviewed by Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon for Canada’s The Metal Voice.

The guitarist was promoting Vandenberg‘s new studio album Sin, which was released via Music Theories on August 25, 2023.

Adrian Vandenberg was asked whether he had ever been asked to join KISS or Ozzy Osbourne given that his band Vandenberg supported both of them back in the ’80s. The guitarist replied (as transcribed by The Metal Voice with slight edits):

“I did. A story that I never told before. Ozzy actually. First time I met him [Ozzy] during the tour. But I must say he was not quite sober, which was unusual for Ozzy of course [laughs]. His tour manager introduced me to him and he was in a lunchroom of one of the hotel and he said ‘Adrian, do you want to join my band?’ [Adrian replied] ‘We are supporting you guys and Jake [E Lee] is a fantastic player.’ He [Ozzy] mumbles something, like stay in touch or whatever. But later on, some people mentioned that Don Airey [keyboardist] and a couple of other guys in the band mentioned to Ozzy that my style of playing had a lot of resemblance with Randy Rhoads‘ playing and in the sense of classical influences like Euro metal type of stuff combined with American and blues.”

According to Wikipedia, Lee was in Ozzy‘s solo band from 1982 to 1987.

You can listen to the interview with Adrian Vandenberg on The Metal Voice below: