Testament guitarist, Alex Skolnick, has reflected on the one night he played guitar for Ozzy Osbourne.
Skolnick, 56, briefly replaced Zakk Wylde as the guitarist in Osbourne’s solo band in June 1995, but was dismissed from the lineup less than a month later. During his tenure he played one show with the Black Sabbath singer, which took place at Rock City in Nottingham.
Reflecting on his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Osbourne stint in the new issue of Metal Hammer, Skolnick says, “I don’t know why their separation happened, but I guess Zakk was doing other stuff and there was this search for a new Ozzy Osbourne guitarist.”
He continues, “I was just honoured to be in the running because I’d heard about some pretty well-known players that never got past the audition phase. I actually got to the point of doing a show and Ozzy hired me – he said he wanted me to do the gig. It was an unannounced show at Nottingham Rock City and it was great.”
Skolnick adds that him not hanging about in Osbourne’s band was likely a “management decision”, but isn’t bitter about it.
“It was a great motivation at a time when I didn’t really know what to do next,” he says. “That was when I enrolled in the university called The New School in New York, and studied with these greats like [jazz musicians] Cecil McBee and Reggie Workman.”
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(Ozzy Osbourne photo – Ross Halfin)