Carmine Appice thought Tommy Aldridge’s drum timing was “bad” on recording for ‘Bark At The Moon’ LP
Carmine Appice thought Tommy Aldridge’s drum timing was “bad” on recording for ‘Bark At The Moon’ LP
Drummer Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, King Kobra, Ozzy Osbourne, Blue Murder and many others) was recently interviewed by Jimmy Kay for Canada’s The Metal Voice and was asked about when he joined Ozzy Osbourne‘s solo band during the Bark At The Moon album era.
Appice indicated (with slight edits): “I didn’t even ask to join Ozzy they called me. I was in France and my manager said Sharon Osbourne‘s looking for you. So I called them and they asked me to join the band and I said well I might be interested. I have known Ozzy for a long time. And I said what happened with Tommy Aldridge. They said they fired him. They recorded a new album and they wanted me to go into the studio and fix the drum sound and help finish the album with Ozzy vocals plus I would also get an associate producer credit, So I said ‘Okay, this all sounds good.’ So we put a contract together and in my contract, it said that I can have my own merchandise on the tour and it goes on to say that I have my own PR person with me doing press promoting my drum master classes that I would do on the road which they agreed to it, as it was in the contract.”
“I went into studio to finish the Bark At The Moon album they did with Tommy Aldridge and help the poorly recorded drum sound using some of my techniques. Me and the producer probably re-mic’ed the drum sound but we could not help the timing. Tommy Aldridge‘s drum timing was bad. Also, I helped Ozzy lay down his vocals. Sharon actually left Ozzy in my care in New York City to go lay down the vocals. Then me and Ozzy flew to England and shot the Bark At The Moon video that I was in miming to. We went on tour and all my master classes were sold out (I was giving money to UNICEF also for the master classes). I was making about fifteen hundred dollars a day extra on the tour with these master classes. Sharon didn’t like that. Long story short, she started harassing me on the tour so eventually she came said Tommy Aldridge is taking over. I said we got a contract, then she said ‘I guess I’ll see you on court’ with a real snotty face. So I took them to court and I got what I would have got on the tour but I wasn’t in the band. That’s not what I wanted you know. I mean I sang the background harmonies on the tour and I had a good name and I did a drum solo and I always tore the audience up. But Sharon threw me off the tour. The timing on Bark At The Moon was bad. That’s why they called me but they took Tommy back.”
You can read other excerpts from the interview with Carmine Appice at The Metal Voice‘s website or listen to the interview below:
Carmine Appice Interview-Talks Guitar Zeus- Ozzy Bark at the Moon-Vinnie Vincent unreleased songs
To purchase Guitar Zeushttps://www.carmineappice.net/For a quote for The Metal Voice T-shirt please fill out form herehttps://www.themetalvoice.com/themetal…