Born in Sydney, Australia back in 1950, Bob Daisley was part of many incredible bands during his career like Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Gary Moore, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. But besides being an incredible bass player, he also is a really fantastic lyricist and he showed that by writing the lyrics for most of the best-selling Ozzy Osbourne albums.
In an interview with Talk Louder (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), Daisley recalled how he came up with the idea for the groundbreaking song “Crazy Train”, from Ozzy’s first solo album “Blizzard of Ozz” (1980).
Bob Daisley recalls how he had the idea for Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”
“‘Crazy Train’ came from… Randy had an effect pedal, and it sort of chugged a bit, even when he wasn’t using it. If it was switched on, and it was going through his amp, it made almost like a train sort of sound. Or it reminded me of that anyway. I knew Randy was a fan of model trains, and so was I.”
“It was just me and Randy; we were just working on this riff he had. That’s the F-sharp minor ‘Crazy Train’ riff. And I said, ‘Randy, it sounds like a train, listen.’ But it had a sort of psychedelic, kind of trippy thing about it. And I said, ‘It sounds like a crazy train.'”
He continued:
“And that was when we first used the title, ‘Crazy Train.’ Ozzy sang a good melody over what we’d done musically. And so, I wrote the lyrics to ‘Crazy Train’, [that were] about world events and the threat of World War III, and how many people [were] living in countries that are opposing each other for what reason, for nothing. It doesn’t even make sense.”
“There was a sort of ambition that I always had as a younger player. I always wanted to be, from the ground up, in a successful act that made a difference. (So) I didn’t want to join somebody who was already established, or that had a hit I wasn’t on, or anything like that. I wanted to do something from the ground up kind of thing. With ‘Crazy Train’, I achieved that ambition, and it meant a lot to me. To be a part of that, and see it do what it’s done, it means a lot to me. I feel grateful to having been in that situation.”
Daisley was part of Ozzy’s band from 1979 to 1981, 1983 to 1985, 1988 (As a session musician), 1990 to 1991 (As a session musician) and from 1995 to 1995.