GUS G. Says 'It Felt Really Natural' For Him To Play Classic OZZY OSBOURNE Songs

Greek guitar virtuoso Gus G., who joined Ozzy Osbourne's band a decade ago, was asked during a recent intereview with RadioactiveMike Z, host of the Riverside, California radio station 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", about the experience of playing with the legendary BLACK SABBATH singer. He said (hear audio below): "This was like the school of guitar that I grew up with. These are the guys that I looked upon and had their records, of course, and I was learning, amongst other heavy metal bands, of course, and all that. But I came from this background, so it felt really natural for me to play all this stuff. Of course, I hadn't nailed it down properly, but once I joined, I started practicing more and more and learning the whole catalog. Of course, I grew up listening to Randy [Rhoads] and Jake E. Lee; those records were some of my favorites — 'The Ultimate Sin'. And, of course, later on, with Zakk Wylde, and I would always take some stuff from each guy's playing — little tracks and stuff like that — and mix them."

Asked which song was one of his favorites to perform with Ozzy, Gus said: "It's really hard to narrow it down to one or two songs, because, I mean, what a catalog that guy has. Look at the setlist, and you're, like, 'Oh, wow.' Like, the bible of heavy metal right there. [Laughs] But that said, I always enjoyed the opening of the show — we usually opened up with 'Bark At The Moon'. That is such a high-energy track. You open the show and all the energy is there, and that outro solo by Jake is such a classic. I always loved playing that. I loved playing also 'Mr. Crowley', because it has an amazing melodic outro solo and a little bit of a classical feel to it as well."

Last year, Gus told TrueMetal.it that "it was a little bit of a relief" to find out that Ozzy was getting back together with his longtime axeman Zakk Wylde. "I was just kind of tired of waiting around for all these years, not hearing anything about potential tours or recording activities," Gus said. "Of course, [Ozzy] was very busy with BLACK SABBATH — I understand that — but then in between of all that, there would be all these one-off [solo Ozzy] shows popping up and I had to make myself available for that. But there was never any… I felt like there was no… I didn't see stuff coming up for the future, you know? So, as much as I loved being in that band and working with him, in a way, it was a little bit of a dead end for me, speaking personally. Of course, now he's gonna go on a big tour again and do his farewell thing, and that's great for him, but it was not a creative thing for me."

It was announced in April 2017 that Wylde would be rejoining Ozzy's backing group for all his upcoming solo show dates. Osbourne's touring lineup also includes Rob "Blasko" Nicholson on bass, Tommy Clufetos on drums and Adam Wakeman on keyboards.