Jake E. Lee: Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Bark at the Moon’ Era – 1983

Jake E. Lee joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band for the 1983 album Bark at the Moon, which became Ozzy’s first studio record to feature Lee on guitar and helped define the album’s sound with his riff-driven playing. Jake E. Lee and Bob Daisley were responsible for the music, with Daisley handling the lyrics and Ozzy Osbourne shaping the vocal melodies.

Bark at the Moon was released on November 18, 1983, and eventually sold more than 3 million copies in the United States, where it was certified triple platinum. The album marked Jake E. Lee’s first studio record with Ozzy and featured producer Max Norman, who played a key role in shaping the sound during the sessions at Ridge Farm Studio in England.

The making of the record was a collaborative in equal measure, with Lee later saying he and bassist Bob Daisley spent a lot of time in the studio fleshing out the songs while Ozzy would come in with vocal melody ideas and the song title. In one interview, Lee recalled that Norman “was really helpful for me as far as tightening up, doing two takes and lining them up right,” essentially teaching him how to translate his playing into precise, layered studio tracks without losing intensity. At the same time, Jake described Norman as being in “an interesting position,” already known for his work on Ozzy’s earlier records but still treated, in Jake’s words, like “Ozzy’s bitch,” expected to do whatever Ozzy wanted and getting little say in bigger decisions such as the final mix. Norman engineered and produced the sessions, but Sony brought in Tony Bongiovi to mix the album, a move Jake later called “a fuck‑up,” arguing that Bark at the Moon “could have sounded so much better” if Norman had been allowed to finish the job he started.

Ozzy Osbourne’s *Bark at the Moon* tour and Mötley Crüe’s *Shout at the Devil* era collided in early 1984, creating one of the most notorious double bills of the decade. Ozzy was touring behind *Bark at the Moon* with Jake E. Lee in the band, while Crüe were riding the momentum of *Shout at the Devil* and opening the shows as their profile exploded.

The pairing was fueled by excess as much as music, and the tour quickly became known for the wild atmosphere around both camps. Ozzy and Mötley Crüe even developed a rivalry-turned-bond on the road, with the infamous backstage stories from that run helping define the legend of both acts.

It also mattered musically, because the tour put Ozzy’s new era in front of huge crowds while helping push Mötley Crüe deeper into the mainstream. For both bands, the run became a snapshot of early-’80s heavy metal at its most chaotic, theatrical, and commercially potent.

Carmine Appice joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band in late 1983, stepping in after Tommy Aldridge had recorded the drums for the album *Bark at the Moon*. According to Appice, Sharon Osbourne’s camp contacted him while he was in France, saying they were unhappy with aspects of Aldridge’s drum sound and timing on the record and wanted him to help “fix” it in the studio rather than re‑cut the entire album. Appice went to New York to work with producer Tony Bongiovi, re‑miking and improving the recorded drums as much as possible and also helping Ozzy finish his vocal tracks, earning an associate producer credit in the process. Once the album work was done, he appeared in the “Bark at the Moon” video miming to Aldridge’s original drum track and then took over the drum chair for the start of the tour.

On the road, Appice played the first several months of the *Bark at the Moon* tour in Europe and North America before tensions with Sharon Osbourne brought the arrangement to an early end. Part of Appice’s deal included the right to run his own drum clinics and merchandise on tour, which he says brought in significant extra income and eventually irritated Sharon. He recalls being told by her that his “name was too big” and that they wanted more of a sideman‑type drummer, at which point he was fired and informed that Tommy Aldridge would be returning to the band. Although Appice lost his spot, he later said he pursued legal action and secured the money he would have earned for the rest of the tour, even though he was no longer in the lineup.

JAKE E. LEE (guitarist, Ozzy Osbourne)
I was there for the whole snorting-of-the-ants thing. I think my version’s a little bit different than anybody else’s, but I also was the only guy that wasn’t drunk. I’ll just tell you the way I remember it. We’re at the hotel swimming pool during the day and Ozzy was there bragging about how fit he was getting. Because my martial arts instructor was out on tour with us as Ozzy’s bodyguard and trainer. And I think it was Nikki who said, “Yeah? How many push-ups can you do?” And so they had a push-up contest. Ozzy did about three, I think. Then they had a sit-up contest. Ozzy lost that, too. Then Nikki said, “Well, let’s change the rules.” And Nikki was out there with a girl that he had met the night before. She was lounging in the sun and Nikki pulls his dick out and starts pissing. She didn’t like it, she ran off. It was getting weird, because there were families out there at the pool.

Then Ozzy was sitting on the concrete and we were looking at him to see what he was going to do. And he had this funny look on his face, and that’s when I could see that he was pissing in his trunks while he was sitting down. There’s this pool of piss forming around him, and because he was quote-unquote in physical training, he must have been taking a lot of vitamins because I remember his piss was almost fluorescent. So Nikki’s kind of looking at him, like, “I dunno if that beats me…” And then Ozzy got on his hands and knees and started licking his piss up. That’s when I gathered my things and I said, “Okay, I’m out.” And as I was walking away I saw him snorting something on the ground, which I assume was the line of ants. If they did anything after that, I don’t know and I kinda don’t want to.

The arenas were always full when Mötley went on. Nobody wanted to miss them. They had a great audience reaction. And definitely a lot more girls were interested in meeting Mötley Crüe after the show than they were in coming to the Ozzy bus. You could tell they were going to be huge.

OZZY OSBOURNE
I was well established but Mötley Crüe were coming up fast. It was a good package. But it was one of the most dangerous tours I ever did. I said that to Doc one day, “It’s getting so crazy… ”

MICK MARS (guitarist, Mötley Crüe)
I remember Ozzy just had his daughter Aimee and I remember seeing her as a tiny, tiny little baby. Sharon had just had that kid when we were doing that tour. But Ozzy was still fuckin’ up everywhere. He’d come up to our bus singin’ “Iron Man” but he was singin’, “I… am… krelly man.” And he’d have about half an ounce of cocaine in a baggie and he’d come on the bus and cut out a bunch of cocaine lines and stuff. We called ’em Texas power rails. And the next thing that I know is, I was go- ing to my room, the other guys went to the pool, Nikki pissed, and Ozzy started snorting ants.

SHARON OSBOURNE
A lot of it has obviously been exaggerated. But it was nothing new to me. It was like, “Been there, done that. Move on, kids.” I was brought up at a time where there were real gangsters in the music industry, and people had guns and artists had guns and it was a much tougher business. I’d been around all of that and all the groupies and all the insane behavior. So it did nothing to me. It was just like, “Oh, fuck off.” I was just trying to keep my husband alive.

DOC McGHEE
I don’t think there was anyone in Mötley Crüe that went, “If we do this, that’s going to be cool and people are going to… ” You know what I mean? These guys weren’t bad guys and they didn’t do it to be rock stars. They did it because that’s what they did.