In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, Gus G, talked about no longer being Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist after 7 years in the band.
Read what he said:
You obviously know Zakk is back with Ozzy. Any thoughts about that?
Given the fact that Ozzy is doing this farewell tour or however they’re selling it, it’s a good thing he brought back his most iconic guitar player obviously after Randy Rhoads. I think it’s a good thing they’re back together. I mean, it gives me an opportunity to go back and focus on my own thing because to be honest, the last few years I was just sitting on my ass waiting around to find out what’s gonna happen with the Sabbath reunion and stuff. So there wasn’t a lot of gigs happening the last few years.
You were waiting around because you thought Ozzy was going to call you back?
Yeah, I was waiting around to see if there was gonna be any gigs because Ozzy was gigging with Sabbath for three or four years. He did maybe one show in 2014 and five shows the next year so there wasn’t a whole lot happening but still I was kinda like on standby. I felt I had to be on standby obviously for him and at the same time I was doing my own band. It was kinda hard for me to make a longer term plan for my career by not knowing what’s gonna happen.
There must have been a part of you that wishes Ozzy had given you the call?
I think it’s a wonderful thing that Ozzy and Zakk are back together. There’s a lot of history there between them two and I think a lot of the fans would have wanted that. Umm, like I said, it’s a little bit of a relief for me to finally break free from all that if you like and be able to do my own thing.
It still sounds like you wanted to play with Ozzy again.
I mean that with the best intentions. Not like I didn’t have a wonderful time in Ozzy’s band. I’m just saying the last few years was a lot of waiting around to see what’s gonna happen and that’s what I’m saying.
Were you disappointed that Ozzy didn’t call you to do more gigs?
Well honestly, I sort of expected something would happen at some point. I sort of expected it. I wasn’t so disappointed, to be honest. I think some fans were maybe more disappointed than I was. I think other people were more disappointed for me than I was for me. I think I really got the most I could out of that band doing that gig. I don’t think I could have gone any further with it.
That’s a positive way to look at it.
I didn’t really see a new album on the horizon. If there was gonna be such an album, I didn’t really get any vibes I was gonna be a part of it. The last I was hearing was that he was writing with some other people. I thought to myself, ‘Well, this is probably as far as you can get.’ I realize it’s a big band, it’s a big machine, it’s a big operation and there’s other people that have opinions. But it didn’t really bother me. It didn’t honestly. I was just happy and how cool that all of this even happened.
Did you learn anything from being in Ozzy’s band? How to record in the studio or stuff like that?
Oh, yeah. I learned so much, man. Being in a band like that, an iconic artist, obviously when you do gigs at that level, it’s a big school and it’s a big learning experience. You become a better professional and a better performer and see how everybody else around you reacts and how they work together and how they handle things. Even by hanging out with Ozzy and like a fly on the wall listening to his stories, there’s so much cool stuff there and funny stuff.
What was one thing you remembered Ozzy telling you?
I always remember he said, ‘Leave the gig on the stage. A lot of bands get offstage they’re like, ‘You played this wrong note and we fucked up there.” He said, ‘It’s done. There’s fuck-ups and there’s mistakes and leave that on the stage. It happened.’ That was actually some very wise words from him.