On a conversation with The Eddie Trunk Podcast, drummer Jimmy DeGrasso remembered the time he shared the stage with Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Megadeth and others.
Here’s what he said:
“Yeah, but it was a little bit different. I played in that Detroit State area, through New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, for about four-five years since I was in high school, and I did all the places we used to go to, and I thought, ‘There’s got to be something else.’
“So I just figured, ‘I’ll go to LA.’ And I started a fusion band – it wasn’t even a rock thing, I wanted to go there and play jazz-rock or something like that. And I was living there for about five-six months, and I was breaking into the session scene.
“I was doing a lot of recording jingles, production themes – and the place I was living at, I ran into this guy and we were hanging out, and he said, ‘Hey, Ozzy’s auditioning drummers I think in the next couple of days.’ And I’m thinking, ‘OK, that was strange.’
“Because last I heard, Tommy Aldridge was playing drums, and Tommy’s great, and so I called him up and they had this huge audition, and I wound up with Ozzy, and two weeks later we were in the UK.”
“They flew me over to the UK, and the band at the time was me, [guitarist] Jake E. Lee and [bassist] Bob Daisley. We had our own house, we all had our own floor, so we were writing and recording for about two months.
“And obviously, as always, there was some discord in the camp, but we recorded – I think it’s either five or six songs – so we recorded these five or six sings and then Bob and Ozzy had a falling out and Bob was let go.
“And then we had a couple of other bass players come in, and at one time we had Neil Murray from Whitesnake. So it was me and Jake and Neil Murray from Whitesnake – we kept writing.
“And it’s funny because I have all these versions, and I think some of those songs wound up on the first [Jake E. Lee’s band] Badlands record [1989’s self-titled].”
“And then at one point, the tour manager came over to the house and said, ‘Listen, we’re really not sure where we’re going from here. Ozzy is going to go back with Sabbath and do the [one-off] Live Aid show [on July 13, 1985]. So you can go home for a while; we’ll let you know if we need you again.’
“And that was the end of it. ‘OK, thanks. Bye.'”
