Ozzy Osbourne may be one of the most recognizable faces in rock today, but around 1980 he wasn’t widely known outside the rock world. In fact, during one flight at the time, a star-struck attendant showered him with attention — only to reveal at the end of the journey that she thought he was someone else entirely.
At the time, Osbourne was rebuilding his career following his acrimonious split from Black Sabbath. His solo fortunes would soon change thanks in no small part to the electric guitar brilliance of Randy Rhoads.
But as Zakk Wylde reveals in a new interview with Classic Rock, Osbourne was feeling particularly low when the airline encounter occurred.
“He’s sitting there, bummed out, and the stewardess is like: ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s you!’” Wylde recounts. “She’s giving him drinks, getting him food, and he’s just floored by it. He’s going: ‘Maybe things aren’t so bad.’
As the plane lands, she says, ‘Can I get a picture?’ She takes the photo and says, ‘Thank you, Meat Loaf!’”
— Zakk Wylde
“As the plane lands, she says, ‘Can I get a picture?’ She takes the photo and says, ‘Thank you, Meat Loaf!’
“Ozzy’s like, ‘I really fucking need to cut back on the calories.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Wylde doubles down on his claim that Osbourne had been considering another album after Back to the Beginning. Had it materialized, he says, the project likely would have revisited the sound of No More Tears, when Wylde was drawing heavily on the melodic guitar vocabulary of Southern rock.
No More Tears was Wylde’s second album with Ozzy Osbourne, following his debut on 1988’s No Rest for the Wicked and its lead single, “Miracle Man.” For the follow-up, Osbourne and Wylde folded Southern rock influences into their sound, drawing inspiration from The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet.
“I had a slide with me, and I was thinking about all those bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet that I liked, which inspired the slide lines I started playing — almost like a ‘Free Bird’ feel,” Wylde has said of writing the title track. “What’s funny is that the way we jammed it is almost exactly how it came out on the record.”
The album became a major success. Buoyed by singles including “Mama, I'm Coming Home,” “I Don't Want to Change the World” and “Hellraiser,” No More Tears went on to become Osbourne’s second-biggest-selling album at the time, behind Blizzard of Ozz.
Wylde — who recently released a new album with Black Label Society — has also reflected on selling and later buying back his first good guitar, as well as the unlikely return of his beloved “Grail” Les Paul after it was feared lost forever.
