Why Marty Friedman Thinks He Didn’t Get Ozzy Osbourne Gig in the ’80s

Prior to his time in Megadeth, Marty Friedman auditioned to play guitar for another huge name in metal — Ozzy Osbourne. He didn't get the gig, though, and explained why he thinks it didn't work out during a recent Q+A.

The guitarist told the story of when he auditioned for Osbourne during an appearance at the Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles, and said that he "failed miserably." He recalled that he'd been living in San Francisco when he received a call from Sharon Osbourne inviting him down for the audition, and he was ecstatic about the opportunity because he was struggling financially at the time and living with his then-girlfriend.

"So I learned the music, went down to L.A., they flew me down to L.A. to play with the band. And it was, I guess, the guys who were in the band at the time. And I thought I played everything absolutely just fine, and I thought it sounded great. Everybody was friendly enough, but our images were very different," he remembered.

"Those guys in the band were, like... it was just like a rehearsal, and they were totally decked out in 1980s Sunset Strip — what do you call it — skull T-shirts with handcuffs and long necklaces. And they were just ready to go out on the Strip, and I was just in jeans and a T-shirt, totally normal. I just thought that it was just a different air. It wasn't like these three guys are gonna get together and gel, even though it sounded fine, I thought. I mean, I thought I played everything correctly."

Friedman noted that working well with a band isn't just about playing well together, there have to be other elements that match up in order for the chemistry to be right, such as image and personality.

"If you have the same kind of vibe with the people, you can just kind of smell it, [like] 'This is the guy I wanna hang out with.' And it was different on that level," he elaborated. "They smelled like L.A. and I smelled like San Francisco, which was a different smell. Neither of us smelled very good. But they were cool. Everybody played everything great. They were auditioning thousands of guys. So I didn't get it."

READ MORE: See (Almost) Every Musician Who's Been in Megadeth

Although the rocker understands now why the pairing probably wouldn't have worked out, he admitted that he was bummed about it at the time, especially because he thought he performed the material well enough.

Check out the full video clip below.

Why Marty Friedman Thinks He Didn't Get Ozzy Osbourne Gig in the '80s