Source: Bravewords.com
FIREWIND, featuring OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Gus G., played an exclusive acoustic performance during a session at Vancouver’s Scrape Records on Tuesday, February 19th. Fan-filmed video of the performance is available below:

Source: Bravewords.com
FIREWIND, featuring OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Gus G., played an exclusive acoustic performance during a session at Vancouver’s Scrape Records on Tuesday, February 19th. Fan-filmed video of the performance is available below:

Source: Blabbermouth.net
According to “Tales From The Stage Volume 1” author Michael Toney, former OZZY OSBOURNE and BADLANDS guitarist Jake E. Lee has set JAKE E. LEE’S RED DRAGON CARTEL as the name of his new project, obviously referencing the axeman’s Japanese roots. The group features Ronnie Mancuso (BEGGARS & THIEVES) on bass and Jonas Fairley (BLACK BETTY) on drums. The lead vocalist position is almost solidified, but details are still being worked out. The only information that has thus far been provided is that he hails from Canada, and certain logistics need to be ironed out prior to a formal announcement.
In the process of recording his new album at Las Vegas’ The Hideout Studios — owned and operated by Kevin Churko (OZZY OSBOURNE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, IN THIS MOMENT) — Lee‘s first new release will feature a combination of legendary rock artists and some of the biggest names of new metal. Already recorded are guest appearances by Robin Zander (CHEAP TRICK), Paul Di’Anno (IRON MAIDEN), Maria Brink (IN THIS MOMENT), with many other big names attached to the project.
Toney says: “The two new tracks that I have heard [from JAKE E. LEE’S RED DRAGON CARTEL] are very impressive, and are incredibly fresh sounding — but not really in the same family as [Jake‘s] work with BADLANDS or OZZY. It’s still hard rock, but perhaps a bit more melodic.”
According to the All Music Guide, Lee helped Ozzy Osbourne score two of the most commercially successful releases of the singer’s long and illustrious career — 1983’s “Bark at the Moon” and 1986’s “The Ultimate Sin”. Lee eventually joined up with another former BLACK SABBATH singer (albeit briefly), Ray Gillen, and formed the LED ZEPPELIN/classic rock-esque outfit BADLANDS. Subsequently, Lee played briefly with a band called WICKED ALLIANCE before setting off on his own, issuing his solo debut, “A Fine Pink Mist”, in August of 1996.
Jake E. Lee‘s “covers” album, “Retraced”, was released in the U.S. in April 2005 via Shrapnel Records. All the songs were recorded in a “power trio” format ala BADLANDS and the tracks for the project were cover songs along that style (bluesy power rock).
Pictured below: Jake E. Lee performing live in November 2012

Source: Bravewords.com
According to birminghammail, Australian woman has launched an online petition to try to secure a knighthood for Birmingham music legend OZZY OSBOURNE.
Helen Maidiotis, from Sydney, has just secured the 100th signatory on http://www.causes.com in her bid to honour the Black Sabbath frontman.
Helen had previously campaigned for all four original members of BLACK SABBATH to be knighted, but recently decided to focus her efforts on Ozzy. She has created a Facebook page to support the campaign.
On her page on the website, titled Ozzy Osbourne for a Knighthood, Helen wrote: “Ozzy has been an inspiration to many great musicians over the last 40 years. He is a credit to his country and I believe that a knighthood for Ozzy is one well deserved and long overdue.”
The petition is at Causes.com.

Source: Blabbermouth.net
Former OZZY OSBOURNE bassist Bob Daisley is putting the finishing touches on his memoir, “For Facts Sake!”, which he promises will explain his side of the story of the split with the legendary BLACK SABBATH singer. According to Daisley, he is “working on photo placement now” and the book “will be ready this year.”
In a 2012 interview with Rock Cellar Magazine, Daisley revealed that the 30th-anniversary remastered reissues of Osbourne‘s classic early albums, 1980’s “Blizzard Of Ozz” and 1981’s “Diary Of A Madman”, which came with a box set of previously unreleased live recordings, a coffee table book and other goodies, could have packed much more material than what actually made the release.
“There’d been talk about it during 2010, and it was then that I offered to supply tapes of our rehearsals and writing sessions, to go as proper bonus material,” Daisley said. “And I just said that I wanted a royalty out of it, because it’s my stuff. But they wouldn’t do it because they didn’t want to give me a royalty — they just wanted to buy it.
“So no agreement was made, and as a result the bonus material in the box set is minimal, which is unfortunate because I know the fans want to hear the stuff that I’ve got — recordings of the writing sessions, rehearsals and the songs taking shape. But the Osbournes wouldn’t come to the table, y’know. I didn’t even ask for an equal royalty, it was just a small royalty I wanted because it’s my stuff…”
Daisley added that he had “literally hours and hours of tapes I’ve got from us writing those albums and rehearsing it” that could have been included in the package. “You can hear the songs changing, the different parts taking shape, and all this stuff would have been perfect bonus material for the box set,” he said. “Sadly, the Osbournes are just too greedy and self-absorbed.”
Bob Daisley said in a 2010 interview with his web site that he had not been contacted about the 30th-anniversary editions of “Blizzard Of Ozz” and “Diary Of A Madman”. The tracks played by Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake on both albums were replaced on a previous reissue after Daisley and Kerslake sued Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne over royalties.
Daisley told the web site, “Neither Lee nor I have been contacted, considered or consulted in the decision to re-release the original recordings. As for royalties, we have not been approached for a reconciliation and have been offered and promised nothing.”
Ozzy told The Pulse of Radio he was against the idea of replacing the original tracks when he found out about it. “Believe me, it wasn’t my doing,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t know that was being done, ’cause Sharon was fighting all the legal things that were going down at the time. I said, ‘What did you do that for?’ And she said, ‘The only way I could stop everything was if it went to that level.’ And I said, ‘You know what, whatever the circumstances were, I want the original thing back.’ I mean, I wouldn’t have done that.”
The replacement tracks were played by current METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo and FAITH NO MORE drummer Mike Bordin.
Daisley says that he and Kerslake were fired because of disagreements with Sharon over a number of things, including refusing to do two shows in one day out of worry that Ozzy would blow out his voice.

Source: Blabbermouth.net
LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia is among the musicians who took part in an all-star jam aboard 70000 Tons Of Metal — the world’s biggest heavy metal cruise — which sailed Monday, January 28 aboard the Royal Caribbean Majesty Of The Seas from Miami, Florida to Cockburn Town on Grand Turk Island, and returned to the real world last Friday, February 1. Video footage of Scabbia performing a cover version of the OZZY OSBOURNE classic “Bark At The Moon” with a backing band that included ANNIHILATOR‘s Jeff Waters on guitar, TURISAS‘ Robert Engstrand on keyboards, GOTTHARD‘s Marc Lynn on bass and ENSIFERUM‘s Janne Parviainen on drums can be seen below.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Firefighters were called to Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne‘s home in Beverly Hills, California Thursday morning (January 17) after a candle Sharon had left burning through the night exploded in its glass vase and sparked a small blaze in their living room.
Speaking about the incident on today’s edition of the CBS program “The Talk”, which she co-hosts, Sharon said: “Everybody is fine. There was only Ozzy, myself and the dogs in the house last night.

“At five o’ clock [in the morning], I heard a noise like metal had fallen. I thought it was my housekeeper coming in and she had dropped her keys on the tiles, that’s what it sounded like, so I didn’t pay any attention. A few minutes later, my eyes are stinging and my throat’s closing up, [I thought], ‘Something’s weird smelling in here.’ Then my dog started to bark. I go downstairs and the whole living room [was on fire]. The candle had burst and the cracking sound was the glass and the candle exploding…
“My husband had an operation on his hand yesterday so he’s in a complete cast… He comes down and goes, ‘Oh, the fire, the fire!’ [and tries to put it out[ with his hand in the cast. Then he opens the French doors and I go into the kitchen and throw water on it and it erupted…
“Ozzy‘s front of his hair from (his ear down is), gone! His eyebrows (are gone)… he’s got like, skinned cheeks. We are, like, two idiots, it was like The Three Stooges… Everything you are not meant to do — go to bed with candles alight, open the doors and put water on — we did it all.”
She continued: “[The firemen] come up, they give us a lecture, and Ozzy‘s like, ‘She’s been doing this to me for 32 years! You tell her, you tell her, no more candles!’
“I apologize to my husband because he put himself out. He made his hand worse, it started to bleed, the whole nine yards, and I’m sorry and I love you and I will never light a candle again…
“I want to thank the firemen from Beverly Hills Fire Station because you are magnificent there and I want to say to everyone out there, please, please check your candles before you go to bed.”
In March 2005, a fire broke out at Ozzy‘s Buckinghamshire mansion, causing considerable damage to the home. No one was reported injured during the blaze, but Ozzy and Sharon were treated for smoke inhalation, as were two of their employees.