WARRANT's ROBERT MASON Reflects On His Mid-1990s Secret Stint As OZZY OSBOURNE's Background Singer: 'That Was Such A Fun Gig'

In a recent interview with Jamie Guida of The Mixdown podcast, WARRANT frontman Robert Mason reflected on his secret role as a background singer for Ozzy Osbourne during the 1995-1996 "Ozzmosis" tour. Ozzy had just released his latest album, "Ozzmosis", in October 1995 and was touring in support of the LP. Mason had been doing session work in Los Angeles for Grammy-winning producer Keith Olsen, who co-produced Ozzy's 1988 LP "No Rest For The Wicked" and also had produced LYNCH MOB's 1992 self-titled album, which featured Mason on vocals.

" It's '95, and then a call comes from Sharon Osbourne," Robert recalled (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "And I'm, like, it's like at the perfect time. I just found out I'm not gonna be the singer of this band [CRY OF LOVE, which I had auditioned for]. And I'm having a house built, and I'm dealing with family and personal stuff... And your whole life comes into play. And then she calls and says, 'By the way, we're going on a world tour, and I made some phone calls, and your name came up three out of the four phone calls I made. So will you be Ozzy's background singer on a world tour? We want a real live singer. We don't wanna use tracks or anything,' to their credit. 'And we think you'll be perfect for this.' And Sharon was, like, 'Tell me how much money you need, and just let me know when you can join us.' And I needed a little time. They flew me out. It's funny. They sent me a stack of — FedExed me plane tickets, from Phoenix through St. Louis or somewhere to Copenhagen or Stockholm or something like that, to meet up with them on that 'Ozzmosis' tour right around Thanksgiving or so in '95, and a stack of BLACK SABBATH and Ozzy CDs to learn all the songs. Who doesn't know these songs? Like, come on. So I took my Discman and listened to nothing but all of those albums on the entire flight, 'cause it all came together so quickly. And before I knew it, I'm sleeping, and my alarm rings, and I'm in a hotel in Stockholm. And I'm, like, 'Okay, I'll go down to the venue and get a laminate and go meet everybody and be in this band, figure out what the hell they want me to do. And I ended up, till August of '96, being Ozzy's background singer, and nobody knew about it."

Regarding what it was like being on the road with Ozzy, Robert said: "I don't know if you've seen WARRANT shows. I don't sit still. I wanna metaphorically grab the audience by the throat and have them in the palm of my hand. And if they're tired or if it's a long day or if everybody's sunburnt and drunk or whatever, you can definitely feel that if you're doing my job, and I'm really in tune to that. It's one thing that I do know that I have. I can't explain it, but there is an energy that's back and forth. And if you, and if you're not getting it back or you can sense that you're kind of drawing blood from a stone at times, even though they're there and they love you and they're cheering and stuff, but once that energy level wanes — I think Ozz was really, really in tune to that. And he would feel it afterwards. I'd see him after the shows. He'd come up, he's, like, 'Did you feel that?' And I'm on stage, right, dude. I'm, like, I'm, like, 'Boss, I'm in the wings. Did you feel what?' He says, 'I couldn't get anything out of them.' And I'm, like, 'No, it was amazing. I don't know what your perception was,' but he had that lead singer perception sometimes. that the festivals... And there were weird things. It's tough being on the road sometimes. And he was a legendary insomniac, so in order to not be in a different hotel or the bus every night, he would charter a jet and wanna stay in one hotel in Dallas for a week, or New York or Chicago or L.A. or wherever for a week, and then hub in, hub out for shows. Even if we were on the bus and we were not traveling with him, it was just, like, 'Oh, I'll see you after the set,' like not even at soundcheck. He'll fly in. So some shows he couldn't get in 'cause of weather. I remember we did one in Fresno, and they damn near tore the place apart. He came on stage and lost his voice once, and he was feeling terrible. And I think he just got sick. He insisted on coming and doing a show when maybe we should have just rescheduled it. And it was, like, he did a couple of songs, and I remember the mic went down and he ran and he was gone. And I'm, like, 'What do we do?' We're standing here, and the audience is starting to riot. Me and [then-Ozzy bassist] Rob Trujillo, like, getting in his friend's car and driving from Fresno down to L.A. 'cause we had two days off, and there were fans surrounding the bus, and I was walking back with my stuff. And they don't know who I am. And nobody knows I'm out doing this, by the way. And Trujillo's got friends with a Toyota Celica, and they drove up from L.A., and they were gonna drive him back to Venice. And I'm walking up to the bus and they got pitchforks and torches. They're ready to kill us. And I'm putting my laminate with my bus key inside my shirt… And Trujillo goes, 'Dude.' He's, like, 'Masson, get in the car. We're going to L.A.' I'm, like, 'Okay.' And we drove. We didn't even take the trip on the bus that night."

Mason continued: "Live touring with that band was a trip. We did the Forum [in Los Angeles], and I was outside, and I saw the people holding crosses and Bibles and signs, 'Ozzy is a loser. Jesus is a winner.' And I'm, like, 'Do you realize he wears a cross? Do you realize he's Christian? You realize that?' I almost got my ass handed to me outside The Forum. Almost got killed before I found my way to security again. But that was such a fun gig."

Robert also talked about his decision to quit the Ozzy background-singer gig in order to join the southern-rock band CRY OF LOVE in 1996 for their second release, "Diamonds & Debris", although the group only stayed together for another year. Mason recalled: "Sometime in the summer of '96, Audley Freed [of CRY OF LOVE] calls me and is, like, 'Hey, man. We're gonna make this record. You're the guy. Sorry about the delay. And Columbia really wants us to make this record, and if you want the gig, it's yours.' So I'm on the Ozzy tour, and I had to sit Sharon and Ozz down. I'm, like, 'I love you guys and this is awesome, but I wanna be a lead singer again. I hope that's okay. It's on the same label. I will give you as much time as you need. And Sharon can talk to the execs at Columbia and make it all work out for everybody. But this is something I really would like to do. I really love this band, and they've offered me this thing.' And I ended up giving them a month or so. I think Ozzy asked me just to get him through Donington, which was August of '96. So I was there another month or two doing that, and that was my last show. So that's the way that that ended up happening."

Robert's music career started in New York/New Jersey's rock scene fronting cover bands. In 1991 mutual industry acquaintances with the hard band LYNCH MOB led Mason to fly out to Arizona to join the George Lynch-led outfit in time to start recording the group's self-titled 1992 album. While on tour, LYNCH MOB opened up for WARRANT, whom Mason would join decades later as lead singer. Mason amicably parted ways with LYNCH MOB when the band dissolved in 1995.

Almost a decade after his previous stint with the band, Mason reunited with LYNCH MOB and performed on the album "REvolution", which contained DOKKEN and LYNCH MOB remakes. Around the same time of the release Robert narrowly escaped being severely injured in a terrible motorcycle accident, causing LYNCH MOB to put their tour on hold. In 2008, after a chance meeting at the Rocklahoma festival, Mason was asked to join longtime friends WARRANT as a replacement for Jani Lane. Mason has been with the band ever since.