Ozzy hated final mix on Diary Of A Madman

Ozzy Osbourne thought the mix of his classic album Diary Of A Madman was “crap”, recalls bassist Rudy Sarzo.

The pair were on the tour bus when the final mix of Ozzy’s second solo album was handed to the singer in 1981. And according to Sarzo, Ozzy’s face was a picture when he pushed play.

Sarzo tells The Metal Voice: “I can tell you this because I was on the bus when Ozzy got the mix version of the record and I saw his expression and I heard how he felt about it. He thought it was crap, the mix.

“If you really look back at that record, it was the first album of the 80s to be mixed with so much ambience. It sounds like an 80s record and nobody had heard that before. It was completely different from the sound of Blizzard Of Ozz and Ozzy just had no idea that this was going to be the sound of the future.”

Last month, Sarzo was revealed as the new bass player for Devil City Angels, who release their self-titled debut album on September 18 via Century Media. The band was formed by former LA Guns guitarist Tracii Guns, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett, Cinderella bassist Eric Brittingham and Cheap Thrill vocalist Brandon Gibbs. But Brittingham moved on, with former Ozzy and Whitesnake man Sarzo coming on board.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.