DAVE MENIKETTI Says OZZY OSBORNE Begged Him to Join His Band

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chilinvilin
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DAVE MENIKETTI Says OZZY OSBORNE Begged Him to Join His Band

Post by chilinvilin »

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/yts-da ... -his-band/


Y&T mainman Dave Meniketti says that he was offered the guitarist position in Ozzy Osbourne's band, claiming that it happened while Y&T toured with AC/DC more than three decades ago. Osbourne, who was temporarily utilizing the services of NIGHT RANGER guitarist Brad Gillis following the death of Randy Rhoads, was looking for a more permanent replacement, and approached Meniketti when the two came face to face on the road.

"We were playing with AC/DC in 1982 on the 'For Those About To Rock' tour," Meniketti recalled to The Metal Voice (hear audio below). "And the last show on the U.K. tour was in Dublin, Ireland, and he was waiting for us when we got off stage, after walking back into our backstage room. And he was there with [his wife and manager] Sharon, and he got down on his knees in front of me — of course, [with] the [other Y&T] band members standing only a few feet away — and did the thing where you… up and down with the hands in the air: 'Will you please join my band?'"

He added: "It was a cool thing. I mean, it was fun. It was something to be proud of, for sure, because… I mean, it was Ozzy, and I would imagine he's pretty particular about who he has playing with him. But I kindly declined and said, 'I've got my own fish to fry here, but I appreciate the offer.'"

Meniketti previously spoke about the encounter in a separate interview with writer Dave Ling. He said: "In front of my entire band, Ozzy got down on his knees and said, 'David, would you please join my band?' I looked around and thought, 'Oh no. This isn't gonna go down well with the rest of the guys.' I replied, 'Thanks,' but I was kind of busy, to which he insisted that I had to teach his guitarist, Brad Gillis, how to be a rock star. He said that Brad was too much of a square."
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Re: DAVE MENIKETTI Says OZZY OSBORNE Begged Him to Join His

Post by Paul Wolfe »

Interesting story, but Ozzy then was not the Ozzy we know now. He was still building the legend, he wasn't the legendary prince of darkness.

In the first quote, Brad is playing for Ozzy and in the 2nd quote Brad needs teaching to be a rock star? Have you seen Speak of the Devil the DVD? Brad looks every bit the "rock star" to me.

Kind of sounds like Meniketti is attempting to be relevant beyond fronting a band that few remember.
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Shockwave
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Re: DAVE MENIKETTI Says OZZY OSBORNE Begged Him to Join His

Post by Shockwave »

Paul Wolfe wrote:Interesting story, but Ozzy then was not the Ozzy we know now. He was still building the legend, he wasn't the legendary prince of darkness.

In the first quote, Brad is playing for Ozzy and in the 2nd quote Brad needs teaching to be a rock star? Have you seen Speak of the Devil the DVD? Brad looks every bit the "rock star" to me.

Kind of sounds like Meniketti is attempting to be relevant beyond fronting a band that few remember.


To me Brad looked way out of place in the speak of the devil show. It just seemed like he had no feeling at all and his stage moves are just as comical as Ozzy releasing the mic, walking 5 feet then coming back to grab the mic again.

First thing I thought of when i first saw the show was that his tone is absolutely atrocious and who is the dork...
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Re: DAVE MENIKETTI Says OZZY OSBORNE Begged Him to Join His

Post by Paul Wolfe »

Did you see Brad before or after seeing Jake and/or Zakk?

I saw the show when it was originally aired on MTV and thought Brad did a decent job (for not being Randy)... not a fan of his style on the Ozzy songs, but he did a phenomenal job on the Sabbath covers on the Speak of the Devil record.
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Re: DAVE MENIKETTI Says OZZY OSBORNE Begged Him to Join His

Post by skezza »

Brad did a better job than people have ever given him credit for. He had very little time to learn the material, learnt it well and was surprisingly solid as a player. His tone wasn't suited for Ozzy's band because it was a more pop rock/metal tone. Randy's tone was huge, whereas Brad's was thin, hence it sounded good over those Night Ranger tracks but just didn't fill the mix when he was in Ozzy's band.

He was superb on Speak of the Devil the Sabbath cove album imo.

That said, I prefer Brad to Zakk still, but neither as much as Jake who was the best of that post Randy era.
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