FOZZY is currently on a tour of the UK, and singer Chris Jericho recently spoke with Kerrang! Radio to plug the trek. Jericho was asked by host Jon Mahon to share stories of crossing paths with the legendary Ozzy Osbourne and his wife/manager Sharon.
Jericho first told the story of Ozzy being a guest GM on WWE “RAW,” and how Ozzy refused then-CEO Vince McMahon’s suggestion to call him a “wanker”. “Ozzy’s, like, ‘I can’t call him a wanker,’” Jericho explained. “And Vince is, like, ‘Well, no one’s gonna know that.’ And he’s, like, ‘But your show airs in England and everyone knows what wanker means there. You can’t show that in England. They’ll edit it out.’ And Vince was, like, ‘Oh, wow. You’re right.’ When did you ever think Ozzy would be the voice of reason on when not to swear on TV?”
Jericho then shared a story of partying with longtime Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde at an Ozzfest concert, and how a simple game of baseball set off Sharon something fierce.
“Zakk and I, at one Ozzfest, drank a lot of beer at the time, and we decided to play baseball in the parking lot where the buses were parked. Why not, right?” Jericho said. “So he had a bat and a glove. And so I’m pitching to him, and he’s swinging, and I pitched this really bad throw and he’s laughing, ‘Ah, you terrible. You can’t even throw a ball.’ And I was, like, ‘All right, f*ck this. I’m gonna show him what I can do.’ So there’s people gathering, watching. So I throw this ball like straight down the middle. It’s like Nolan Ryan, and Zakk connects with it, and it goes all the way out into the parking lot, over the fence of where the buses were into the actual general parking lot.”
Jericho continued: “And as he’s running the non-existent bases, we hear this, ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ And we turn, and it’s Sharon, and she’s power walking towards us. She might have even been wearing a pants suit. That’s what I just remember. And I was f*cking terrified. This is Sharon: ‘What the f*ck are you doing?’ And she’s screaming at us. She’s, like, ‘If that ball hit somebody on the head, we could get sued and lose this entire festival.’ She’s, like, ‘What were you thinking, Zakk?’ And then she looks at me and goes, ‘And who the f*ck are you?’ ‘I’m nobody.’ She says, ‘You’re right. You’re nobody. Get outta my face.’ So me and Zakk were almost running to the bus, his bus. And he’s trying to put the key code in so we can get on. It was like a horror movie. We finally get on the bus and we start howling.”
“When Sharon and Ozzy hosted (“RAW”), I told Sharon that story and reminded her of it. And Ozzy heard that and thought that was hilarious. ‘Who the f*ck are you, man? Who the f*ck are you?’ Sharon pinches me on the ass on the way out. I don’t know why. And Ozzy’s, like, ‘All right, man. See you later. Who the f*ck are you?’ Just a couple of brushes with him.”
Check out Jericho’s full appearance below.
