During a lengthy conversation with Revolver, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo spoke to multiple stories involving himself and that of metal legend Ozzy Osbourne. Among those stories, Trujillo speaks to when he officially first met Ozzy; this would have taken place in the early ’90s, when Robert was still performing in Infectious Grooves. Per the Metallica bassist, this is what he had to say about first meeting Osbourne:
“When I really met Ozzy was at Devonshire recording studios; it was a compound in North Hollywood and Ozzy was recording No More Tears. Mike [Muir] and I were recording the first Infectious Grooves album [1991’s The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move… It’s the Infectious Grooves]. We were also on the same record label too; we were on Epic Records at the time. So, we were basically like a fraternity there. We had this place for — I don’t know how long — and we’re both making records. So we’re all hanging out. And at the time Ozzy would sneak over into our room.
“Our dream was to have Ozzy sing on one of our songs. We had a song called ‘Therapy,’ so we invited Ozzy to sing on it. And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ But we didn’t know when he was gonna actually show up to sing, you know? [Laughs] We were in the middle of recording something completely different and he randomly shows up, and goes, ‘All right, let me hear the song.’ [Laughs] And we’re like, ‘Oh… Okay!’ So we had to rearrange everything for him to just get in there right away and sing. He sang the chorus on the song ‘Therapy,’ and he was amazing. But the funny thing was after that he would sneak away from his assistants and his minders and come over to our section of the compound … and they didn’t know where he was half the time. [Laughs]”
Robert is then asked if there are any funny stories associated with that time where Ozzy and Infectious Grooves were in the studio. This prompts Trujillo to share the following (and hilarious) story:
“He was like playing a game with [his assistants] and quite often he’d end up in our room, and he would want to hear that song. Sometimes to mess with us, he would say things like, [in Ozzy accent] ‘You got any booze? You got any weed? You got any cocaiiiine…’ [Laughs] And then we were like, ‘No, Ozzy, we don’t have that stuff.’ And he’d go, ‘You’re boring.’ [Laughs] Then he would laugh and say, ‘Turn on the song, let me hear it.’ And he would do these interpretive dance moves, like head bobs and creative things with his hands and his jewelry would be clanking. He was just a lot of fun.
Ozzy sure knows how to poke fun and get some laughs! The metal legend has a brand new album out today you can listen to now! Also, in the same Revolver article, Trujillo talked about a show involving Infectious Grooves playing for Ozzy, and how it was a “cursed gig.” Link to that story can be found below.