Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee recently opened up about his nerve-wracking debut performance with the Prince of Darkness, describing it as an unmitigated disaster that left him convinced his tenure in the band would last exactly one night.
Appearing on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Lee remembered the chaotic 1982 show — believed to be in Sweden or Finland — that kicked off the Bark at the Moon touring cycle after he replaced Brad Gillis, who had temporarily filled the enormous void left by Randy Rhoads’ tragic death.
According to Lee, everything that could go wrong did. His guitar tech had quit without warning, the band never got a proper soundcheck, his guitar was badly out of tune, and the stage crew initially miked the wrong cabinet. When technicians frantically switched to another cabinet mid-song, they accidentally plugged into a dummy cab with no speaker, leaving Ozzy singing “I Don’t Know” to total guitar silence while confused fans held up Brad Gillis signs.
“It was just a bad show from start to finish,” Lee recalled. “I come blasting in late, still out of tune — it was horrible. I walked off stage thinking, ‘Here it comes, I’m done.’”
Instead of the expected firing, Ozzy approached him backstage, threw an arm around his shoulder and said, “It’s only going to get better after this, right?” Lee laughed and replied, “Yeah, thank you — because he could have smoked me at that moment.”
The supportive reaction stunned the guitarist and cemented his place in the band. Lee went on to co-write and record the classic Bark at the Moon album and remained Ozzy’s lead guitarist through 1987’s The Ultimate Sin.
Reflecting on the incident years later, Lee credits Ozzy’s unexpected grace under pressure with saving his job and proving that even the wildest first gigs can have happy endings.
