Ozzy Osbourne has gone on the record to say that Randy Rhoads was the first guy to give him hope, so naturally, when Rhoads recommends a bass player to Osbourne, he’s open to the suggestion. And that’s what happened in 1981. In need of a touring bass player for his solo work, Randy Rhoads said he knew a bass player from his time in another band named Rudy Sarzo.
Rhoads invited Sarzo to audition and it went well enough that “Ozzy turns to me and he says, ‘Hey, man, do you want the gig?'” Sarzo recalls to Billy Corgan on the The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan series, “And I said, ‘Yes.’ And my life went into Panavision color at that moment. It was like, ‘Wow, I’m in this world now'” (as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). And while the time with Ozzy Osbourne was short lived – Sarzo was in the band for about a year before Rhoads was tragically killed in a plane crash – the bassist remembers that he never felt like an outsider. Osbourne had no problem including him in discussions with the press, particularly related to the fact that Sarzo was Cuban.
Specifically, Sarzo recalls the first interview Ozzy did after Sarzo had joined, nonchalantly including the fact that Sarzo was Cuban with no bother, saying to Corgan, “I open (the magazine) and I see ‘Rudy from Cuba.’ And I went, ‘Wow, he doesn’t mind that I am from Cuba.’ That is what confirmed” that he was secure in his role as the touring bassist.
And of course, when a member of Osbourne‘s entourage, you need to look the part, and Osbourne wasn’t quite satisfied with Sarzo‘s wardrobe and took it upon himself to help the bassist: “We were playing pool. He takes a look at me and he goes, ‘Man, you look like you need some rock and roll clothes. He says, ‘Grab whatever you want. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s the jacket from that album cover of this magazine.'”
Despite the fallouts that occurred between the Osbournes and the loss of Randy Rhoads, Sarzo is far from dismissive of the role that time played in his life, and the kindness that Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne showed Sarzo during it, “Nobody did that for me before.”
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