RUDY SARZO Reveals More Details About His Recent Collaboration With BRAD GILLIS And TOMMY ALDRIDGE

In a recent interview with Rock Your Faith Out, legendary bassist Rudy Sarzo spoke about his collaboration with his former OZZY OSBOURNE bandmates Brad Gillis (guitar) and Tommy Aldridge (drums) on a recording of a "classic cover song", to be released later this year. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There's a singer named Rick Hughes. He's in a band called SWORD in Montreal, Canada. His manager contacted Tommy, Brad and me and asked each individually if we wanted to play on one song off his record. I'm not gonna disclose what the song is. I can tell you it's not an Ozzy or BLACK SABBATH song. It's not; it's not at all. It has nothing to do with anything that we have done together in the past, except it's us playing together. There's no tie to what we did in the past."

He continued: "It's not really a project; it's is a one-off, an appearance. And so we did the song about three or four months ago — that's when I did my track — separately. Tommy did his, and I did mine, and then Brad did his. That's how we all were able to do it because we live in different parts of the world. So then they asked us if we wanted to be in the video. And I figured, 'Well, I already played on the track, and I like what I played. So I might as well be on the video.' And that's what we did. We got together [in late November] and we made a video."

Asked when the song and the accompanying music video will be released, Rudy said: "It's not my decision. It should be coming out somewhere in 2025. Stay tuned.

"We were just basically hired to do this," Rudy explained. "We're not part of something. Because I already have my something, which is QUIET RIOT, and I'm very busy with that something."

Gillis first revealed his involvement with Sarzo and Aldridge on the aforementioned recording last November. He wrote on his social media at the time: "Excited about recording a classic cover song and filming a video to be released in early 2025….. Getting together with my ol' Ozzy buddies Rudy Sarzo (bass) and Tommy Aldridge (drums) and talented Canadian vocalist Rick Hughes was a BLAST! More to come soon!!!"

Formed in 1980 in Montreal, SWORD (not to be confused with THE SWORD, a great doom metal band that came out over 20 years later) released its Combat Records debut, "Metalized", in 1986, punctuated by the band's precise thrash attack, and the soaring vocals of Rick Hughes, summed up by Kerrang!'s Mark Putterford as such; "My eyes are a painful shade of purple. My ears are ringing tortuously. My mouth is awash with blood and broken teeth, I've just been ten rounds with a Montreal mob called SWORD. "

SWORD was hand-picked by METALLICA to open the Quebec leg of the "Master Of Puppets" tour, Alice Cooper's Canadian "Return Of The Nightmare" tour and then crisscrossed the U.K. with the mighty Lemmy on MOTÖRHEAD's "Rock N' Roll" tour. "Metalized" was followed up by the heavy but diverse "Sweet Dreams" in 1988.

After a short U.S. tour promoting "Sweet Dreams", SWORD started work on its third album when all hell broke loose, and a parting of ways ensued. Until 2011, when they reunited for a few select shows in Canada and Germany and found the urge to go back in the studio to pick up where they had left off.

The quartet soon ended up right back where they started, after connecting with Thom Hazaert and then-MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson, and their relaunched Combat Records, which immediately released "Live: Hammersmith", a live recording of a "Metalized"-era SWORD show supporting MOTÖRHEAD at England's fabled Hammersmith Odeon.