The list of guitarists who nearly joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band over the years is something of a who’s who of the 1980s guitar scene, featuring the likes of Vito Bratta, Richie Ranno, Marty Friedman, Jennifer Batten and more.
Now, Chris Impellitteri – founder of heavy metal band Impellitteri, who was widely considered to be one of the fastest guitarists of all time in his prime – has opened up on the time he himself auditioned for Ozzy’s band.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Impellitteri recalls receiving a message from Osbourne’s wife and manager, Sharon, at some point in the 1980s when he was at the peak of his powers. And, though he doesn’t recall the specific year he was approached, it seemingly coincided with the time Jake E. Lee departed, right before Zakk Wylde was eventually hired as his replacement.
“Let me not exaggerate that because it's been so many years,” Impellitteri relays. “What I remember – and I don’t know if Jake [E. Lee] was still in the band – that I was living in an apartment, and I had roommates.
“I came home one night from rehearsal, and my roommate goes, ‘Oh you've got to listen to this message,’ which said, ‘This is Sharon Osborne. Me and Ozzy have been checking you out, and we really love your guitar playing. We want you to come down and audition.’”
There was one problem: Impellitteri had just signed a deal with Relativity Records, meaning it was nigh-on impossible for him to get out of the contract and join Ozzy’s band. Still, he turned up for the audition.
“I talked to Sharon, and I think Ozzy, probably three to five times,” he continues. “There was some back and forth. The problem was that I’d already signed a deal with Relativity [Records]. I had an attorney at the time named Peter Paterno, and he was frustrated and goes, ‘Chris, why didn't you do the gig?’
“I was like, ‘First of all, it technically wasn't offered to me. They basically just asked if I would come down and play with them.’”
Though he wasn’t offered the gig, Osbourne’s camp was apparently “very interested” in Impellitteri, who ended up going down to play two or three songs with the band. Still, a deal is a deal, and Impellitteri didn’t walk away from Relativity Records.
Whatever the case, it would have been an interesting appointment, and as Impellitteri goes on to speculate, the direction of Ozzy Osbourne’s band could have followed a completely different trajectory had the neo-classical speed shredder been recruited.
“If you listen to the new [Impellitteri] record, War Machine, I promise you that a lot of the stuff we do has elements of Randy Rhoads,” the guitarist notes when asked about what direction he’d have taken Ozzy’s band.
“Let’s say everything worked out with Ozzy, and I joined, right? I don’t think I would have wanted to do a record in the direction that he went. And by the way, those records with Zakk are amazing, and Zakk’s a phenomenal player. I really love him.
“I would have wanted to do something more like Blizzard of Ozz or Diary of a Madman. At that point in his career, Zakk and those songs elevated Ozzy, so imagine if you had this little brat kid like me, going, ‘No, no, no, we're going to do another Diary of a Madman.’ [laughs]
“Would that have been a positive thing for Ozzy or a negative? That change was orchestrated as the landscape was changing, and Ozzy, who was already big, became even bigger.”
The full interview with Chris Impellitteri will be published on GuitarWorld.com in the coming weeks.
