When I was a teenager playing in various bands, there was a dude who was always hanging around named Roger Bussell…….. ROG. He was a great drummer; I had a lot of spontaneous jams with him and Ian Ransome, who introduced me to one of my all-time favorite bands, Victim's Family.
Rog was always talking shit and dropping names. I never know what he really did or anything- still don't- but one time, when the topic of an Ozzy show coming to town came up and Rog said he knew the lawyer for some of Ozzy's bandmates and could make something happen, I called him on his shit.
"Alright, dude, I want to go see Ozzy and go backstage."
Holy crap-ROG made it happen somehow. We went to the Oakland Coliseum, and next thing I know I am standing on the side of the stage right next to the monitor guy, watching Alice In Chains. We had gone through the backstage area to get there- a band named Blind Melon had opened up the show, and we briefly glanced at their dressing room for some reason. The singer would later famously die of a heroin overdose…. same as the singer for Alice In Chains.
Anyway, I'm standing on the catwalk next to the monitor board with Rog and I realize I am also next to Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson, the two guitarists for Night Ranger. Brad had played on Ozzy's record "Speak of the Devil", a live album of Black Sabbath songs that he made and put out right after Randy Rhoads died in a plane crash. That album played a role in me learning some metal chops on guitar. I somehow worked up the balls to tell Brad this fact at this weird moment, not knowing that many years later I would end up recording him with Night Ranger, working on several of their albums and even getting to mix an acoustic version of their biggest hit,"Sister Christian", among others.
In a bit, some longhaired dude came up to where we were standing with like 8 beers in his hands, handing them out to all of us. It was Ozzy's guitar player, Zakk Wylde. Pretty sure I was too young to drink at this point, but that did not stop me from accepting a beer. A short time later, the lights went down and this creepy organ music started blasting out of the PA…. Ozzy appeared in a throne descending from the sky, and the place started going nuts…….someone stepped onto the catwalk where we were standing, and I glanced over my shoulder. I saw a steady stream of pee falling a few feet away from us on the catwalk stairs; it was Zakk Wylde. He had his bullseye guitar over his should and a beer in his hand. As soon as he finished pissing on the catwalk, he ran up onstage, just in time to rip out the chords for the first song. It was probably Crazy Train or something, I can't remember……….. but it was awesome.
Of course, after the show, we went and met one of the guys in the band in his dressing room……. and he and Rog laughed about some stories about the dude's lawyer…. who Rog OBVIOUSLY knew…. I got a glimpse of Ozzy shuffling down the hall and into his own room, surrounded by "handlers"….. weird.
Many years later, I was at a friend's crab feed; he happened to be friends with Jeff Watson, who was also there. Jeff was talking about various things he had experienced and soon mentioned the "most rock-star thing I have ever seen"……. and it was Zakk Wylde, pissing on the side of the stage seconds before hopping up there to start the set with Ozzy.
Jeff and I would go on to become good friends and work together on a ton of different projects.
It was pretty classic.