In an interview with Tone Talk, Jake E. Lee talked about how he had to win over Randy Rhoads’s fans early in his time with Ozzy Osbourne, both on stage and off stage.
“There was always people in the front rows with ‘Randy rules, you suck,’” Lee explained. “Every gig, there’d be somebody with a sign like that. I think maybe the ‘Ultimate Sin’ tour. I didn’t really see that as much. But the ‘Bark at the Moon’ tour, there was still a lot of that.”
“And in the beginning, I didn’t know that you’re supposed to check into a hotel under an assumed name. So, I just checked in with my real name,” the rocker admitted his mistake. “I used to get phone calls at the hotel: ‘I’m better than you. You suck. Listen to me over the phone.’ So that’s when I said, ‘Oh, that’s why you use it,” he added.
Lee was chosen by Osbourne to replace Rhoads in the band. The rocker played in two albums, ‘Bark At The Moon’ and ‘The Ultimate Sin.’ According to producer Max Norman, ‘Bark At The Moon’ had a different feeling than the rest of the albums thanks to Lee, but he kept receiving backlash.
“And coming in to ‘Bark at the Moon’ had a whole different feel about it – and different band. Yeah, it was very tough for Jake, but Jake was very capable at that time, played very good, did the job really well, and did a lot of great writing,” Norman explained in a chat with Eddie Trunk.
He added: “And obviously, there were some later problems with all that stuff with Jake, and having just written with Jake on some stuff in the last couple of years, he’s still very bitter about that whole time.”
Lee recently has been less active due to a recent health scare. He first believed he had carpal tunnel syndrome, but after seeing a surgeon, he found out that he did not have carpal tunnel. Instead, he has little cartilage left in his right hand, causing painful bone-on-bone contact. He is currently receiving cortisone shots and physical therapy to manage the pain.
The guitarist mentioned that he doesn’t plan on getting surgery and is focusing on pain management while learning to play using his elbow more. He has started playing again and hopes to finish the canceled ‘Patina’ tour and do more recording with Red Dragon Cartel.