From the moment Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath following 1978’s Never Say Die! album, his guitar player slot has been one of the most coveted gigs in the industry.
Ozzy’s eye for white-hot guitar players has been indisputable ever since. He pulled Randy Rhoads away from Quiet Riot to launched his solo career. With his ample fretboard acrobatics, Rhoads quickly rose to become a guitar star put in the same league as Eddie Van Halen. When he tragically died in 1982 at just 25, a teenage Bettencourt was certain he would be his successor.
“When I was 14 and his guitar player passed in a plane accident in 1982, I believed I was going to replace him,” Bettencourt says. “There was an ad to send a cassette in, so I put a cassette together thinking, This is my gig. I'm going to get it. Of course, I didn't. Nobody ever called.”
Ozzy instead recruited Jake E. Lee as his second full-time guitarist, after Bernie Tormé and Brad Gillis had held down the fort in the interim.
Three years later, Bettencourt, having plied his trade in hair metal group Sinful, joined Extreme, the band with whom he'd make his name.
Their self-titled debut album arrived in 1989, bolstered by the song "Play with Me," which was featured in the film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Extreme's stock continued to rise with Extreme II: Pornograffitti (1990) and III Sides to Every Story (1992) packing plenty of chart-bothering hits.
That caught Ozzy’s attention.
“Cut to 12 years later.” Bettencourt says. “I'm opening for Aerosmith with Extreme in London, and my booking company goes, ‘Sharon just called. Ozzy wants you to be in the band.’ This is like 1995, '96, and I said no.”
Time can change one’s priorities, and though his dream gig landed right on his lap, he felt a loyalty to his bandmates.
“I was in a band that were up and coming with Extreme, and we had hits up,” he explains.
Like many, Bettencourt had his last moment with Ozzy at Back to the Beginning, when taking the group photo.
“I grabbed his hand saying, ‘Thank you for everything, and thank you Ozzy for what you mean to me.’ And he pulls me in by the hand. He goes, ‘You were the only guitar player who said no to me.’”
There were rumors that Ozzy had originally turned to Gary Moore to launch his solo career, and that the Irish rocker had turned him down. Whether or not it's true, there are no known instances of guitarists saying no to the Prince of Darkness. Most — like Slash’s right-hand man Frank Sidoris and neoclassical hotshot Chris Impellitteri — were eager for their chance and now spin tales of their failed auditions.
Bettencourt's timeline seems to line up with Alex Skolnick’s one-show stint in the band, about a year after Zakk Wylde was temporarily pushed out of the band as a chance to join Guns N’ Roses loomed.
“He was a godfather to us,” Bettencourt said to Page Six on the red carpet at last weekend's MTV VMAs. “For him to do what he did with Black Sabbath and then be out of there and have a whole other career as Ozzy Osbourne the solo artist, and be a reality star after that, this guy's affected culture and touched everybody in so many different ways.
Bettencourt said his final exchange with Ozzy was one of good spirits and that they shared a mutual love and respect for one another.
“He was a godfather to us,” Bettencourt said to Page Six on the red carpet at last weekend's MTV VMAs. “For him to do what he did with Black Sabbath and then be out of there and have a whole other career as Ozzy Osbourne the solo artist, and be a reality star after that, this guy's affected culture and touched everybody in so many different ways.”
Meanwhile, Rudy Sarzo has said the band needed to continue touring after Rhoads' passing, else Ozzy would have drunk himself to death.
