Marty Friedman recalls his audition to Ozzy Osbourne’s band

The guitarist Marty Friedman was born in Washington D.C. in 1962, starting his musical career in 1981 but really achieved fame after becoming a member of Megadeth in 1990. He stayed in the band for 10 years, until 2000 and was part of classic albums like “Rust In Piece” (1990) and “Countdown To Extinction” (1992).

But before that he played with many bands and even tried to become Ozzy Osbourne‘s guitarist. But as he said at Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp’s “Metalmania III” (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), he failed at the audition.

Marty Friedman recalls his audition to Ozzy Osbourne’s band

“I failed miserably. I think it was probably because of the way I looked. I actually got a call from Sharon Osbourne way, way back, and I was living in San Francisco, and they said, ‘We’d like to fly you down to audition for Ozzy. And I’m, like, ‘Oh my god. This is great.’ I was practically homeless at the time, living with my then-girlfriend and dealing with the rent and all that stuff, as California rock musicians do.”

“And I was so happy to get the call. So I learned the music, went down to L.A. — they flew me down to L. A. to play with the band. And it was, I guess, the guys who were in the band at the time. And I thought I played everything absolutely just fine, and I thought it sounded great.”

He continued:

“Everybody was friendly enough. But our images were very different. Those guys in the band were, like — it was just like a rehearsal, and they were totally decked out in 1980s Sunset Strip — what do you call it? — skull t-shirts with handcuffs and long necklaces. And they were just ready to go out on the Strip, and I was just in jeans and a t-shirt, totally normal. I just thought that… It was just a different air. It wasn’t like these three guys are gonna get together and jell, even though it sounded fine, I thought. I mean, I thought I played everything correctly,” Marty Friedman said.

Ozzy’s solo career started in 1980 and since then he had many incredible guitarists in his band. Some of them were Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde.