Category: music

Even after securing the gig, Rudy Sarzo still sought assurance that he would be truly accepted as the new bass player in Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Recently, Sarzo opened up about how Ozzy helped him feel more comfortable during that uncertain time on an episode of *The Magnificent Others* podcast, hosted by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.

### What Ozzy Said About Rudy During a Magazine Interview

With the help of former Quiet Riot bandmate Randy Rhoads, Sarzo found himself auditioning for Osbourne’s band in early 1981. The first step involved playing two songs with the band while Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne observed from the front of the stage. Afterward, the group asked Sarzo to play the same two songs again, but this time with Ozzy behind the mic.

“Ozzy turns to me and he says, ‘Hey, man, do you want the gig?’ And I said, yes,” Sarzo recalled during *The Magnificent Others*. “And my life went into Panavision color at that moment. It was like, ‘Wow, I’m in this world now.’”

Despite nailing the audition, Sarzo still wondered if he would truly fit in with the band. This sense of uncertainty was familiar to him, having escaped Cuba with his family to Florida in 1961 when he was just 10 years old.

However, it was an interview Ozzy did with *Circus* magazine that finally reassured Sarzo. The 74-year-old bassist explained that in the 1981 interview, Ozzy was asked who was in his band at the time. Ozzy referred to Sarzo as “Rudy from Cuba.”

“I open [the magazine], and I see ‘Rudy from Cuba,’ and I went, ‘Wow, he doesn’t mind that I am from Cuba,’” Sarzo said. “That is what confirmed it.”

### Ozzy and Sharon Kept Rudy From Sleeping on the Floor

Sarzo also revealed to Corgan that he was still sleeping on the floor after joining Osbourne’s band. That changed when Ozzy and Sharon stepped in. The couple invited Sarzo to move in with them so he would have a comfortable place to sleep.

Ozzy also offered Sarzo some of his own stage clothing.

“We were playing pool. He takes a look at me and he goes, ‘Man, you look like you need some rock and roll clothes,’” Sarzo recalled. Ozzy then left the room and returned with a suitcase full of clothing, which he dumped out in the middle of the pool table.

“He says, ‘Grab whatever you want.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s the jacket from that album cover of this magazine,’” Sarzo said. When he told Ozzy he couldn’t take the clothing, the Prince of Darkness insisted.

“Nobody did that for me before,” Sarzo reflected on Ozzy and Sharon’s hospitality.

—

**WATCH:** Rudy Sarzo on *The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan*
[Include video embed or link here]

—

**READ MORE:** The Most Collected Albums by 11 Big ’80s Metal Bands
https://loudwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-rudy-sarzo-audition/