BOB DAISLEY - "OZZY Was Fired From BLACK SABBATH And People Warned Me Against Working With Him Because He Didn’t Have The Best Reputation"

Bassist Bob Daisley is featured in a new interview with Guitar World, in which he reveals why he decided to bet on Ozzy Osbourne's post-Black Sabbath career. An excerpt from the feature follows...

Bob Daisley has enjoyed an illustrious career, holding his own on bass alongside a list of legendary guitarists, including Ritchie Blackmore, Randy Rhoads, and Gary Moore. One of his most notable contributions to rock 'n' roll history, however, is his stint in Ozzy Osbourne's post-Sabbath solo career and his low-end work on Blizzard Of Ozz (1980) and Diary Of A Madman (1981).

Joining Osbourne was far from a straightforward decision, however. After being fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, the Prince of Darkness’s career and personal life took a downward spiral, reportedly spending three months locked in his hotel room in a drug- and alcohol-fueled haze.

Despite this, music mogul Don Arden signed him to Jet Records and sent his daughter (and Osbourne’s future wife) Sharon to Los Angeles to protect “his investment.”

When Osbourne returned to England in the second half of 1979, Daisley – who had just been unceremoniously replaced in Ritchie Blackmore's band, Rainbow – got introduced to Ozzy.

“Ozzy has just come back from LA and been fired from Black Sabbath. People warned me against working with Ozzy because he didn’t have the best reputation,” Daisley tells Guitar World. “He’d been getting out of it, being drunk, unprofessional, unreliable, and all the rest of it. But I had a feeling of: ‘I’ve got to do this.’”

So what compelled Daisley to jump aboard the Ozzy’s crazy train, given his less-than-ideal state at the time? Find out here. Guitar World's full interview with Bob Daisley will be published later this month.