Jake E. Lee found out from his guitar tech that he was fired from Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band

Jake E. Lee found out from his guitar tech that he was fired from Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band

More than 30 years later, Red Dragon Cartel guitarist Jake E. Lee continues to open up about his time with Ozzy Osbourne from 1983 to 1987. In an interview with eonmusic, Lee talks about how he got fired from Ozzy‘s solo band.

In terms of the rumours that he got fired by telegram, Lee advised: “*Laughing* I had no idea it was coming, but it wasn’t by telegram! I mean, it was the 80s, and I guess people sent telegrams back then, but I didn’t get it via telegram. When I heard about it, that night –this was all in L.A. – Sharon Osbourne called me, and said she wanted to have dinner with me. I said “Okay”, so we went out, and she was buying, so it was a great dinner, and we went back to the hotel and we talked for a while. And I suppose there was clues in there, because she was talking about how; “Someday Jake, when you have your own band”, I think her major piece of advice was to be on time, because I’m notoriously late for everything! So she said; “When you’re leader of a band, you kind of need to set an example, and you need to be on time”, and that was the only clue I had, really.”

With respect to how he found out, Lee indicated: “I came back home, and my roommate at the time was also my guitar tech, and he came back from the Rainbow, and he’d seen [Ozzy band mates] Phil [Soussan, bass], and Randy Castillo, [drums], and he said they came up to him and said; “So, what are you going to do now that Jake’s out of the band?!” So he ran back home and told me, and said; “Dude, did you just get fired?! , and I went; “No!”, and he went; “I think you did”, and I went; “No, I just saw Sharon, I just had dinner with her, and we talked and talked – I think she would have told me if I was fired!” And he said; “Well, that’s not what Randy and Phil said!”, and I was like; “Oh, come on!””

Lee continued: “So I picked the phone up, and I called Sharon back and said; “I just heard the weirdest rumour”, and she broke down and said; “Yes, it’s true”. And I said; “What, do you mean I’m fired?!”, and she goes; “Yes, that’s why I took you out to dinner”. *Laughing* “But you never said anything!”, and she said; “I know! I just felt too bad and I just couldn’t do it”, which people might find hard to believe because Sharon Osbourne, I mean, come on, she’s pretty ruthless. But we got along very well when I was in the band. I considered us friends back then, and just the fact that she was supposed to fire me and couldn’t, it’s hilarious in retrospect. That night, it wasn’t so hilarious.  So yeah, I found out I was fired through my roommate.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Lee at eonmusic.