The Don Costa Story – Jake E. Lee on Ozzy’s Worst Firing, “It was horrible!”

Don Costa came into Ozzy Osbourne’s orbit right as the Jake E. Lee era was taking shape, when things around Ozzy were loud, volatile, and moving fast. He was not some random hired gun. Before he ever plugged in with Ozzy, Costa had already been grinding it out in the Los Angeles scene, playing in early versions of W.A.S.P. and what would eventually become Great White, back when they were still going under the name Dante Fox. He carried that rough, Sunset Strip survivor energy with him: big tone, big attitude, and a street‑level understanding of what heavy rock needed to feel like in a club before it ever hit a big stage.

Putting him with Jake E. Lee made sense on paper. Jake had this fluid, slightly unhinged style that sat somewhere between Randy Rhoads’ precision and a dirtier, more streetwise swagger, and Costa could anchor that with a thick, punchy bass presence that did not feel polite. He was not a minimalist “stay out of the way” bass player; he played like someone who wanted to be heard and felt, which suited the chaos around Ozzy at that time.

His history in the early W.A.S.P. camp and the Dante Fox era of Great White gave him a different kind of credibility. Those bands were still more rumor than empire when he was involved, and being around that formative period meant he understood how fragile and brutal the business could be. He had seen the version of L.A. rock where people cycled in and out of bands constantly, where one week you were in the “next big thing” and the next week your name was not even on the flyer. That background fed into the way he carried himself with Ozzy: confident, a little dangerous, and not shy about pushing things onstage and off.

Of course, life in the Ozzy camp has never been known for stability, and Costa’s time there was no exception. The same edge that made him an interesting fit also meant there was always a sense that something could go sideways at any moment. You can feel that tension in the way people talk about that lineup: it sounded powerful, looked cool, and felt like it could explode in any direction. Eventually, it did, and Costa was out. The reasons and the way it went down are a story in themselves, full of the kind of twists and bad decisions that only seem to happen in that world. Here, it is enough to say that his stint with Ozzy was short, intense, and very much in character for a guy who had already been through the wars with W.A.S.P. and Dante Fox before stepping into the lion’s den.

Sara Costa’s Don Costa Interview