Nuno Bettencourt recalls his final conversation with Ozzy Osbourne – as “the only guitar player who said no” to playing for him
Nuno Bettencourt may have been the only guitarist to turn down an offer of playing for Ozzy Osbourne, but the Extreme guitar icon remembers their final conversation together fondly.
Bettencourt was offered a job with the Prince Of Darkness in the 1990s, but turned it down as he was busy with his own band. He’d also previously auditioned to play for Osbourne as a teenager, but didn’t get selected.
READ MORE: “I was very bummed”: Wolfgang Van Halen explains the real reason he had to drop out of Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s farewell concert
In an interview with Page Six on the red carpet at the VMAs, Bettencourt says (via Guitarist), “When I was 15 and his guitar player [Randy Rhoads] passed in a bad plane accident, I believed that I was gonna replace him, and there was an ad to send a cassette in.
“So I did. I put a cassette together at 15, sent it in, [I thought], ‘This is my gig. I’m going to get it.’ Of course, I didn’t,” he continues. “Nobody ever called. Cut to 12 years later, I’m opening for Aerosmith with Extreme in London and my booker comes in and says, ‘Sharon [Osbourne] just called. Ozzy wants you and wants you to be in the band.’ This is like 1995, ’96. I said no.”
Though he admits it’s a regret, Bettencourt caught up with Osbourne at the Back To The Beginning final Black Sabbath gig: “The last words we said to each other when we took the big group photo, I grabbed his hand, saying, ‘Thank you for everything, and thank you, Ozzy, for what you mean to me.’
He goes on to add, “He pulls me in by the hand. He goes, ‘You were the only guitar player who said no to me.’ But he laughed! He goes, ‘I love you and thank you for being here.’”
Bettencourt also joined a supergroup consisting of Yungblud and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry at the VMAs to perform a tribute medley in honour of Osbourne. You can watch the performance below:
The post Nuno Bettencourt recalls his final conversation with Ozzy Osbourne – as “the only guitar player who said no” to playing for him appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
