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 — probably not discuss to him a lot. However the most effective 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 received a DAT participant. I do not know if you happen to bear in mind these, the digital cassettes. And he is going round to the fellows within the band and our administration on the time, and he goes, [adopts British accent] ‘That is my new report. 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 form of the peak of his prowess because the Prince Of Darkness. He had an amazing guitar participant with him, and it was only a nice marriage of every thing. And that report 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 report earlier than just about anyone else did, definitely most of the people…”
Reflecting on Ozzy‘s legacy, Michael mentioned: “You consider folks which were so necessary to our style of music. He was just about the man that made this model of music with SABBATH, and it form of leapt on to… And I do not know the way it could not be in anyone’s DNA that performs arduous rock. You have gotta have SABBATH in your factor. I imply, I bear in mind listening to ‘Grasp Of Actuality’ after 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 properly 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 marvel” 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: “Nicely, it is arduous 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 yr is our fortieth yr. So while you look in these phrases, in fact you see your mortality on some stage. You do not know how for much longer you may really do that, however at this level I can say that everyone’s wholesome, glad and nonetheless loves doing this. So it is arduous to say — 5, seven, ten years. It is arduous to say, however we’re blessed with having a catalog of music that folks appear to reply to, and so they wanna maintain coming and seeing us. So, it is form of that push-[and]-pull between the viewers and us. If we now have the power to exit and play and we’re nonetheless wholesome sufficient to do it properly, which is clearly essential to us, we’re gonna maintain doing it. The one factor that is in all probability tough for what we do, the way in which we journey now, it is a completely 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 received a back-to-back coming. So it is early flights. In order that’s in all probability the one draw back I may probably give you. I imply, the followers have been implausible. We’re nonetheless getting 45 to 50 reveals a yr.”
Ozzy died the morning of July 22, his household introduced in an announcement.
“It’s with extra unhappiness 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 right now,” the household mentioned.
No explanation for dying was given, however Osbourne had battled quite a few 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.
