In his first public interview since being installed as new guitarist of OZZY OSBOURNE's band, guitarist GUS G. (also of FIREWIND) spoke to the Greek version of Metal Hammer magazine about how he was approached about joining Ozzy's band, and it almost sounds like a 15 year old who has a crush on a girl:
I got a message on my MySpace page from Rob 'Blasko', Ozzy's bass player, asking me what was doing, if was living in America or not and saying that he wanted to talk to me. I never thought he'd want me for something like that [playing with Ozzy]. I initially thought that maybe he wanted to talk to me about doing a project or something and then he told me that one of Ozzfest's managers was looking for me. The manager said that they wanted me to fly out to Los Angeles immediately for a show that Ozzy was about to do in Anaheim, California.
Ozzy had to send his friend to ask first! And, via MySpace of course! But before Ozzy could make the plunge, he had to make sure his friends liked Gus:
I went to the studio and they asked me to start playing right away. I met Ozzy's band first — the bass player and the drummer — and we jammed for quite some time, just to 'feel' each other's playing. While we were playing, Ozzy showed up and started to sing the songs, thus giving a huge boost to the whole thing. When it ended, everybody else came into the room and shut the door behind them — Ozzy, Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy's wife/manager], the band, the managers… You can imagine how anxious I was feeling at this time! Then they came out and said that I got the job and that we're gonna play that BlizzCon show together.
All joking aside, for any guitarist to get this call is a dream come true and Gus G. was nothing but professional in the whole matter. Ozzy on the other hand is a different story. Gus had nothing but great things to say about ousted guitarist ZAKK WYLDE telling the Greek mag: "Zakk is my favorite Ozzy guitar player ever and my biggest influence of them all! It's quite an honor for me to step into his shoes."
[ via Blabbermouth ]
