Zak Starkey reveals he turned down chance to join Sabbath

Zak Starkey has revealed that he once turned down the offer to join Black Sabbath.

• READ MORE: Zak Starkey on being sacked from The Who, dreams of playing with Oasis, and advice for Barry Keoghan playing Ringo Starr
  

He shared the update in light of the news that Ozzy Osbourne, the 76-year-old heavy metal godfather and iconic Black Sabbath frontman died on Tuesday (July 22). In a statement, Osbourne’s family shared that the music legend was “surrounded by love” at the time of his passing.

Taking to Instagram, Starkey – who has played the drums for the likes of The Who, Mantra Of The Cosmos, Oasis and more – shared a screenshot of an email he received asking him to join the Birmingham metal group.

The email was sent by Ozzy’s wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, and was sent ahead of the band’s shows planned for summer 2013.

“Zak, Black Sabbath is headlining Download on June 10 and then Lollapalooza in August. The guys need a drummer for their album, which will be recorded in September with Rick Rubin producing. We would probably need you for 2-3 weeks for the album,” Sharon wrote. “Also, they need a drummer to play at Lollapalooza which is on August 3 in Chicago.”

She then joked at the end: “Also, Ozzy wants to have sex with you while he is singing ‘Iron Man’. Big Kiss, Sharon”.

Starkey – who is also the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr – would ultimately turn down the offer, as he had prior commitments with The Who. This involved performing with them at the closing ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics, joining them for their ‘Concert For Sandy Relief’ charity show, and embarking on their ‘Quadrophenia and More’ tour, which spanned across 2012 and 2013.

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He would eventually have to take a step back from the 2013 touring commitments due to developing tendonitis, but rejoined Roger Daltrey and co. for their 2014 tour.

Writing in the caption of his new post, Starkey said: “Regrets I’ve had a few -this is one – (not the sex part!)”

“Ozzy will always be one of the greatest, natural, brilliant singers of all time. I send much love and strength to his family at this sad sad time,” he added. “If u aren’t familiar with the ‘Never Say Die’ record – get into it – it’s so far out.”

Following Starkey turning down the offer, Sabbath chose Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk to join them in the studio – creating what would be their ‘13’ album, shared in 2013. They also selected Tommy Clufetos to join them on that tour.

With the tribute, Starkey joins a long list of artists who have been paying tribute to Ozzy. Huge names have paid tribute, including Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong, Jack White, Coldplay, and Gojira. Touching messages have also been shared by his Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler.

Adam Sandler also took to social media to reminisce about how he worked with the ‘Paranoid’ singer during the making of his 2000 film Little Nicky.

Ozzy’s death comes after he played his final live show in Birmingham earlier this month. Dubbed ‘Back To The Beginning’, the gig was held in the band’s hometown on July 5, and marked Ozzy’s last performance both as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath.

It also saw him raise “a ton of money” for charity, and featured performances from Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and many more.

The farewell show is set to be turned into a concert film and shown in cinemas next year, along with behind-the-scenes footage and backstage interviews. Osbourne‘s final memoir, Last Rites, is also set to be posthumously released later this year.

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As for Starkey, the post on Instagram comes as he was recently fired from The Who ahead of their farewell tour.

Confusion followed, when Starkey claimed the band asked him to “lie” about the reasons for quitting the band, and his father Ringo Starr hit out at Roger Daltrey over the firing. Scott Devours, who previously drummed in Daltrey’s solo band, has taken over Starkey’s duties on The Who’s farewell tour.

Speaking about the firing, Starkey told NME that upon the news of being fired, “Pete [Townshend, guitarist] said, ‘Are you strong enough to fight for your job back?’ I said, ‘Not if you’ve got to do it for me’. If it wasn’t for The Who, I wouldn’t be playing the drums. I was a guitarist first. And then he went, ‘Alright, let’s get you your job back’.

“Roger demanded a public apology and me admitting that I dropped two beats. So I did it, but with a duck playing drums – which is my character in the new Mantra Of The Cosmos video. Pete phoned me and he went, ‘Try that again without the duck’. I did it without the duck, got the gig back – 10 days later, sacked again. Roger said he couldn’t work with me no more after I’d done that.

“I still talk to Roger every week on the phone, I still text with Pete all the time,” he continued. “I spoke to Roger a few weeks ago and he said, ‘Don’t take your drums out of the warehouse just yet in case we need you’. What the fuck’s going on, man? That’s where we’re at now.”

In that NME interview, he also spoke about his new material with Mantra Of The Cosmos, and about how he felt with Oasis reuniting without him, opting for Joey Waronker behind the kit instead. Check it out here.

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