George Lynch , a guitarist known for playing in the bands Dokken and Lynch Mob, says he was never paid for the month he spent playing with Ozzy Osbourne before being told he wouldn't be hired.
Lynch toured extensively with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne in 1982, thinking he would fill the spot left by Brad Gillis , but in the end, the position was offered to Jake E. Lee . Lynch was sent home empty-handed.
In an interview with Ultimate Guitar , the guitarist admits to having had to quit his job to work with Ozzy at a time when it wasn't financially possible.
"My wife and I had two kids and were living in an apartment," Lynch explains. The artist worked as a truck driver for a liquor distributor and led a comfortable life.
“The job paid the bills and kept our family safe and all that. And I had to quit that job,” Lynch explains.
After a month on the streets with Osbourne, the artist reveals that "they didn't ask me about my situation, they didn't pay me anything" and that he was sent home without having "received a penny for a month at that time."
Lynch recalls returning home with his wife in his ten-year-old car and, after picking up the children from his mother-in-law's house, arriving at his apartment to find an eviction notice. Unable to pay the rent, he had to move into his wife's parents' house.
The guitarist continues: “They were throwing money around like it was nothing. Sharon traveled with suitcases full of cash. It was crazy. We’d go to dinners that cost $10,000 (approximately R$57,000 at the current exchange rate)… and we couldn’t even pay the rent, you know?”
“So I thought that was pretty insensitive. But whatever. They live in a different world, I understand that. I took the chance and it didn’t work out,” Lynch concludes.
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