In a brand new interview with Matt Bingham of the Z93 radio station, GREAT WHITE rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Michael Lardie paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who died late final month on the age of 76. Requested if he has any Ozzy recollections to share, Michael mentioned (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “A few issues. We did do [the] Roskilde [festival] in Denmark, and so they have been the headliner — Ozzy solo. So we have been capable of see him — not likely speak to him a lot. However the very best story I’ve is we have been each on a flight to London collectively, the band and Ozzy and his solo band. And he was strolling across the airplane, saying hello to [original GREAT WHITE singer] Jack [Russell], and we have been speaking and chatting and all that stuff. And he is obtained a DAT participant. I do not know should you bear in mind these, the digital cassettes. And he is going round to the blokes within the band and our administration on the time, and he goes, [adopts British accent] ‘That is my new file. Would you go take a hearken to it?’ And it was ‘No Extra Tears’. And while you first put the headphones on and also you hear that riff, you are simply, like, ‘Oh, my…’ To me, that was type of the peak of his prowess because the Prince Of Darkness. He had an awesome guitar participant with him, and it was only a nice marriage of every part. And that file simply had a lot toughness and power. And it was a deal with to see him on the airplane, for one, however then to have the ability to hearken to that file earlier than just about anyone else did, definitely most people…”
Reflecting on Ozzy‘s legacy, Michael mentioned: “You concentrate on folks which were so essential to our style of music. He was just about the man that made this model of music with SABBATH, and it type of leapt on to… And I do not know the way it could not be in anyone’s DNA that performs laborious rock. You’ve got gotta have SABBATH in your factor. I imply, I bear in mind listening to ‘Grasp Of Actuality’ once I was like 12 and studying ‘Candy Leaf’. In order that that a part of what he meant to all of us is an extremely cool factor. And the truth that we really had some up-close-and-personal stuff with him as nicely is one thing I will all the time treasure.”
Requested by Bingham if the passing of a few of these rock legends, like Ozzy and Jack, makes him “begin to surprise” about GREAT WHITE‘s future in any respect and the way lengthy he and his bandmates need to keep out on the street, Michael mentioned: “Properly, it is laborious to say. All of it feels fairly good for us nonetheless at this level. And we have been clocking the variety of years — like Audie Desbrow, the [GREAT WHITE] drummer, and I’ve been within the band since ’85, so this 12 months is our fortieth 12 months. So while you look in these phrases, after all you see your mortality on some stage. You do not know how for much longer you’ll be able to really do that, however at this level I can say that everyone’s wholesome, glad and nonetheless loves doing this. So it is laborious to say — 5, seven, ten years. It is laborious to say, however we’re blessed with having a catalog of music that folks appear to answer, and so they wanna hold coming and seeing us. So, it is type of that push-[and]-pull between the viewers and us. If we now have the flexibility to exit and play and we’re nonetheless wholesome sufficient to do it nicely, which is clearly essential to us, we’re gonna hold doing it. The one factor that is most likely troublesome for what we do, the way in which we journey now, it is a totally different factor as a result of we’re just like the weekend warrior. Like for this weekend, we’re gonna come and see you guys. We’re gonna be in Bay Metropolis [Michigan] on Friday and Morton, Minnesota on Saturday, which is like an hour and a half out of Minneapolis. So we obtained a back-to-back coming. So it is early flights. In order that’s most likely the one draw back I may presumably give you. I imply, the followers have been incredible. We’re nonetheless getting 45 to 50 reveals a 12 months.”
Ozzy died the morning of July 22, his household introduced in a press release.
“It’s with extra disappointment than mere phrases can convey that we now have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has handed away this morning. He was together with his household and surrounded by love. We ask everybody to respect our household privateness at the moment,” the household mentioned.
No reason for dying was given, however Osbourne had battled a lot of well being points over the previous a number of years, together with Parkinson’s illness and accidents he sustained from a late-night fall in 2019.
