George Lynch recalled the depressing expertise of being employed by Ozzy Osbourne and touring for a month with out going onstage earlier than lastly being changed by Jake E. Lee.

Lynch’s 1982 expertise got here three years after he first auditioned for Osbourne, when the Prince of Darkness selected Randy Rhoads. On the second event, he hoped to fill Brad Gillis’ footwear – and he practically did it.

“I was kind of feeling like, ‘Okay, well, this time’s real. This time it’s going to stick,’” Lynch informed Ultimate Guitar in a current interview. “And I had time to prepare.”

Lynch enlisted Ratt’s Warren DeMartini to assist him work out Rhoads’ guitar elements, admitting the model was “not really down my lane.” But by the point of his new audition, he was assured he knew the fabric, and it appeared to go effectively.

“And they flew me around,” Lynch mentioned. “I went to Scotland, I went to Ireland, England, back to Texas for rehearsals. Did some touring – but I didn’t walk onstage during the show. I’d do soundchecks with him occasionally and stuff like that. And just hung with the band. I think they wanted to see how I fit chemistry-wise with everyone.”

He continued: “But they had two problems with me. Ozzy had a problem with my short hair – I had short hair at the time. And and then his wife had a problem with my green guitar. She said it looked like a booger. Didn’t care what it sounded like, didn’t care what I was playing.

“I go, ‘Well, I have other guitars. This is just the one I brought.’ She kept bringing it up at dinner and at rehearsals. I was like, ‘I really do have lots of other guitars. It’s no problem. And my hair grows. And guess what? Your husband’s bald!’”

Referring to the truth that Osbourne had lately reduce all his hair off didn’t assist Lynch’s case. “But he’s Ozzy and he can do whatever he wants,” the guitarist added. “[I said,] ‘And they have these things called wigs, and lots of rockers wear them. I’ll wear one of those. How about that?’ I never got that chance to get past that.”

READ MORE: 10 Underrated ’80s Hard Rock Guitar Heroes

The Moment George Lynch Suspected Ozzy Had Fired Him

Despite Lynch’s recommended options, the stalemate between him and the Osbourne camp ontinued. “About a month went by, and we were traveling, rehearsing in Dallas for a while,” he remembered. “Then we moved rehearsals to L.A. And then we’re at SIR [music studio] one night, and Wendy Dio, I guess, kept pressuring him to get one of her guys. And Jake E. was one of her guys.

“So, they had an audition that they didn’t tell me about, and I just showed up at SIR thinking, ‘We’re going to rehearse’ – and there’s the other guys onstage. Nobody even told me. And Jake E. was up there, not really playing very well – and self-admittedly, because we talked afterwards.”

Lynch needed to enable: “But he looked fantastic. He had this full leather bodysuit with all these accoutrements all over it, and his hair was down to his ass. He looked fantastic. And he moved great.”

The solely factor remaining was for Lynch to be informed what he already suspected. “Ozzy walked back to the dressing rooms and said, ‘Hey …’ It’s hard to understand what he was saying, his accent, I couldn’t really tell what he says. But I got to the point that I was fired.”

Although Lynch loved success all through the ’80s with Dokken, he nonetheless admitted: “That was pretty rough.”