Ever since Randy Rhoads got Ozzy Osbourne’s solo career off to a dream start, the Prince of Darkness has featured an array of world-class guitar players in his band.
Big hitters like Nuno Bettencourt, George Lynch and Buckethead have either been considered or auditioned for the gig over the years and failed to secure the coveted spot.
But Alex Skolnick falls somewhere in the middle. He was chosen to replace Zakk Wylde, Ozzy’s third full-time guitarist, in 1995, and played one show before being ousted in favor of former David Lee Roth guitarist Joe Holmes. As a result, his shorter-than-a-month reign stands as a minor footnote in the singer’s history.
Although it was a flash in the pan, Skolnick looks back on his Ozzy Osbourne sojourn fondly.
“I guess Zakk was doing other stuff and there was this search for a new Ozzy Osbourne guitarist,” he tells Metal Hammer. “I was just honored to be in the running because I’d heard about some pretty well-known players that never got past the audition phase. I actually got to the point of doing a show and Ozzy hired me. He said he wanted me to do the gig.”
Skolnick’s sole performance was an unannounced show at Rock City in Nottingham, England. A recording of the group performing “Crazy Train” is among the few mementoes of the evening.
Skolnick suspects a “management issue” cut his tenure short. By the sound of it, Sharon Osbourne wasn’t overwhelmed by the new recruit.
In a 2016 chat with Loudwire, the guitarist explained that, following the gig, “there was one person who didn’t congratulate me. A lot of hints had been dropped — things like, ‘Maybe you could lower the guitar,’ or ‘Maybe you could stand like this.’ I realized, Oh, I think she wants me to be Zakk Wylde.”
But Skolnick tells Metal Hammer he holds no grudge. “It was a great motivation at a time when I didn’t really know what to do next,” he says.
The guitarist had recently left Testament, the thrash-metal band with which he made his name. He played on Savatage’s Handful of Rain the year before and became involved in a range of projects, including Skol-Patrol, which played theme songs from police TV shows; Attention Deficit, a trio with bassist Michael Manring and Primus drummer Tim Alexander; and the prog-rock band Stratospheerius, led by electric violinist Joe Deninzon.
“That was when I enrolled in the university called the New School, in New York,” he goes on. “I studied with these greats like [jazz musicians] Cecil McBee and Reggie Workman.”
Skolnick returned to Testament in 2005 and has written four albums with the band since.
But in scoring a gig with Ozzy, he got further than most. Chris Impellitteri was at the height of his neoclassical shredding powers in the late ’80s when Ozzy sought a replacement for the outgoing Jake E. Lee. Yet, despite catching Ozzy’s eye and securing an audition, he lost out to a then-unknown talent by the name of Zakk Wylde. The shredder, who has hit back at critics of his left-field picking technique, recently took a trip down memory lane with Guitar Player, dishing out the details behind some of his biggest tracks.
