In 2011, Ozzy Osbourne’s career-reviving solo debut Blizzard Of Ozz received a belated 30th-anniversary re-release. The album was packaged with the Prince Of Darkness’ 1981 effort, Diary Of A Madman, for a reissue for the ages, stuffed to the gills with live footage, behind-the-scenes previews and remastered material.
One of the bundle’s most potentially intriguing features was left on a cutting room floor, however: a brief speech from Motörhead leader Lemmy Kilmister giving his thoughts on Blizzard… and the touring around it.
In the footage, thankfully preserved and later uploaded to YouTube, Lemmy reveals that he “never really got into Black Sabbath”, the band that Ozzy was fired from in 1979 and returned to in 1998. Yet, he calls Blizzard… a “great” album, and goes on to share stories from the time Motörhead supported Ozzy’s solo band on a 1981 North American tour.
“We got to see him play at least half of [Blizzard…] every night,” Lemmy says. “It was really good. Really good tour.”
He then talks about Randy Rhoads, Ozzy’s first solo guitarist, who passed away aged only 25 in a 1982 plane crash.
“Randy Rhoads, although being a wonderful guitar player, could not play Asteroids for shit,” Lemmy jokes, referring to the 1979 arcade game. “I beat him right across this country, from East Coast to West and back.”
Getting a bit more serious, Lemmy continues: “Randy was, like, just brilliant. Of course, he got better after he died, because everybody does. But I loved Randy. He took risks; he wasn’t scared. He knew his instrument. He’d just go for it – that’s what I liked about him. Ozzy used to throw him around, throw him up on his shoulders while he was playing, and he never missed a note!”
After touring together in 1981, Lemmy and Ozzy’s paths would cross a few times, most notably when the Motörhead man wrote some songs for the Double-O’s 1991 album No More Tears and his band supported him on the follow-up 1992 tour, No More Tours. Lemmy sadly died in December 2015, and Ozzy passed last month at the age of 76.
Both men have received monuments in their hometowns: a statue of Lemmy was recently erected in Burslem, Stoke-On-Trent, and there’s a Black Sabbath Bench in central Birmingham, featuring the faces of Ozzy and Sabbath’s other founding members. Ozzy’s funeral procession passed the bench on the way to a private ceremony on July 30.
Watch Lemmy’s complete reflection on Ozzy’s Blizzard Of Ozz era below:
