LEE KERSLAKE Responds To SHARON OSBOURNE’s Claims That OZZY OSBOURNE Was Always OZZY’s Solo Project, Not A Band

Lee Kerslake Sharon Osbourne

Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Ozzy Osbourne and URIAH HEEP Drummer Lee Kerslake.

Lee responded to Sharon Osbourne‘s recent claims that Ozzy Osbourne was always a solo act in the early days and never a band called.

He said: “First of all Sharon wasn’t our manager at the beginning, Don Arden‘s son David was our manager for a time and he asked us what are we going to call the band? Then Bob Daisley said what about OZZY OSBOURNE’S BLIZZARD OF OZZ?  So they went with that. The whole team at the office said yes and that was before Sharon came over and took over as the manager.

“I have the recollection that we spent quiet a bit of time naming the band also I wouldn’t have joined Ozzy it is wasn’t a band. I wasn’t out of work. I was doing my own solo venture where I got a call saying you have got to join this band.  So then I said I will audition them and they can audition me. After my audition was a success I said if we are a band then I am in. Then Ozzy said this band will never part. That is all I needed, was Ozzy the singer in his words saying we were a band and that’s when we started working.”

When asked about his upcoming documentary and interviews with KISS, Lee responded: “I had the most wonderful honour to see KISS. We asked the band through my director, producer Tayla Goodman of my documentary. She got in touch with their manager and the manager said I just spoke with Paul and Gene and they both turned around and said without question anything Lee wants, he gets, we honour him cause he is a legend.

“Then we had a long chat about the good old days. Also they let me go see their show in the U.K. and they treated me like royalty. Then we did an interview with them. I would also like to mention that Ian Paice from DEEP PURPLE and Joe Elliot have also been interviewed for my documentary and now we are waiting to catch up with Nicko McBrain from IRON MAIDEN for an interview.”

In December, Kerslake told The Metal Voice that his prostate cancer has spread to the rest of his body. “I have now have bone cancer, which is a nasty one, so the doctor gave me about eight months to live,” he said. “But I’ve been fighting all the way. Five years ago, they gave me four years to live, and so that gives you an idea.”