Nuno Bettencourt reveals he quiet quit his set with Jake E Lee at Black Sabbath tribute show Back To The Beginning in order to let the former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist take the limelight.
Speaking to Guitar World, Bettencourt said they were playing Shot In The Dark, or at least he was scheduled to be playing on it, when the Extreme guitarist decided that, all things considered, Lee had it covered. This was a moment the spotlight could belonged to him
“ I didn’t tell anybody I was doing it – but I just walked off the stage,” says Bettencourt. “I wanted Jake to have his moment without another guitar player stealing his thunder.”
Whether it was Lee, Randy Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, Gus G or whoever, the Ozzy Osbourne gig was always a single-player game. Coming from a band like Extreme, in which Bettencourt’s electric guitar has the run of the place, he understood that implicitly.
“We all came from one-guitar bands. We didn’t want rhythm guitarists,” says Bettencourt. “I wanted Jake to have his one moment up there by himself, so I just left. And Jake nailed it.”
If Back To The Beginning was the all-star all-dayer to end them all, then Lee’s performance was one of redemption – it was the ultimate comeback. It was only in October 2024, when Lee was shot three times while out walking his dog, Coco, in Las Vegas. He is lucky to be alive. He also hadn’t been in contact with Ozzy for a number of years but when Back To The Beginning’s musical director Tom Morello called the answer was always going to be yes.
That said, it wasn’t easy. Not only was Lee recovering from being shot, he is dealing with arthritis. Like former Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse, Lee has had to reimagine his playing in recent years. His self-confidence has taken a knock.
Bettencourt says that Morello contacted him saying that Lee was not sure he wanted to play the solo to The Ultimate Sin – would he do the honours instead? But there was no way Bettencourt was going to agree to that.
“We all know that, as legendary as Jake is, he’s struggling a little bit, as we all do as we get older and don’t know what’s going to happen to our hands and bodies,” he says. “I told Tom, ‘Give me his phone number right now.’ I texted Jake and told him, ‘You are fucking Jake E. Lee. There’s no way in hell I’m taking that solo. You’re going to play that solo. And not only that, I’ll double it with you, and we’ll do it together. Whatever happens, it’s going to be fucking incredible,’ and that’s what we did.”
Bettencourt and Lee got on like a house on fire. Game recognises game. But Bettencourt did have a bone to pick with Lee. He was “so fucking humble” for a player who took on the hardest job in rock-and-metal, following Randy Rhoads.
“I told him, ‘You’re fucking Jake E. Lee!’ Not only did he replace Randy, but he took Ozzy to another place,” says Bettencourt.
You can read Bettencourt’s interview in the latest issue of Guitar World – subscribe and save.
