Out of all of Ozzy Osbourne’s solo releases, legions of fans hold Tribute in the highest regard, saying it captured the magic of the band like no other. And in truth, it was a release like no other.
The 1998 live compilation paid homage to the late guitar hero Randy Rhoads, who had tragically died in a plane crash in 1982, via live recordings from several shows performed between 1980 and ’81. The band — which also featured drummer Tommy Aldridge, keyboardist Don Airey, and bass player Rudy Sarzo — was one of Ozzy’s finest.
But as Sarzo tells Matt Pinfield, that classic lineup almost didn’t materialize after he initially turned down the offer to join Ozzy’s band.
The opening for a bass player occured when Bob Daisley left the group. It was Rhoads who suggested Sarzo, his former Quiet Riot bandmate. Quiet Riot had disbanded when Rhoads left for England to audition for the Black Sabbath singer’s new solo project. Before Rhoads was swept away, he and Sarzo had formed a strong partnership, and both were teaching music lessons at a music school that belonged to Rhoads’ mother.
After Quiet Riot broke up, Sarzo joined an L.A. glam-rock act called Angel. He still shared an apartment with former Quiet Riot vocalist Kevin DuBrow. So he was surprised when Sharon Osbourne called him with an offer.
“She goes, ‘Hi Rudy, I’m Sharon, and I manage Ozzy, and Randy’s been telling me about you. How would you like to come down to audition?’ ” Sarzo recalls.
“Immediately, because I was really so much into Angel, I turned it down,” he continues. “You know, it’s like, ‘Oh, no thank you. I’m in this band called Angel.’ She hangs up on me.”
It’s a classically cut-throat reaction from Sharon — the same wife/manager that gave Rhoads’s replacement, Jake E. Lee, a notoriously hard time and booted Alex Skolnick out of the band after just one show.
Soon after, Sarzo started feeling the weight of his actions.
“Now, I’m sleeping on the floor of Kevin DuBrow’s apartment,” he relays. “I don’t have any money to eat, but I’ve always been a ‘band guy.’ “
Nevertheless, DuBrow took a dim view of Sarzo’s actions and told him he’d made a mistake.
“The next day, I get another call, this time it was Ozzy,” Sarzo continues. “And by then, Kevin had yelled at me for turning down the audition. He put some sense into me, and I said, ‘Oh God. Okay, I made a big mistake,’ because the reality was that I was going to get to play with Randy again. I had never played with Ozzy, so I had no reference or connection with him, but it was like ‘Hey, you’re going to play with Randy again.’
“So, I get the call from Ozzy, and he says, ‘Listen, we checked out a bunch of guys, and Randy still says, ‘You’re the guy.’ So, how would you like to come down?’ By then, it was like, ‘Yes! I’ll be right there.’”
Sarzo’s reunion with Rhoads was painfully short, but he says it was important for the rest of the band to continue touring in his memory.
“To actually be there to experience the tragedy that left so many scars on everybody,” he says, “I lost the joy of making music. I kept going onstage because it was decided that we’re gonna keep moving on. Because if Ozzy would have gone back home, he would have most likely drank himself to death.”
The bassist is in the uncanny position of having played with Black Sabbath’s two biggest singers in their respective solo guises. He was part of Dio’s final lineup, having joined in 2004. And while he says he has the utmost respect for Ozzy — especially considering what the gig meant for his career — Sarzo says Dio’s band was “a different level”.
The bassist has also credited Rhoads’ talents as a rhythm guitarist, which he feels often get overlooked because of his lead chops. It wasn’t missed by Zakk Wylde, though. The Viking shredder became Ozzy’s third full-time guitarist and quickly drew on Randy’s galloping rhythms to write ‘Miracle Man’, his first song with the singer.
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