Favorite Ozzy Axe-Man???

[King Elvis]

I am on a roll with the polls today. Anyway who is your favorite guitarist that has played with Ozzy since he always has a knack for playing with great guitarist.

[VOXVENDOR]

Zakk .... all the way...

[Son of Mixerman]

RR

SoMm

[JR#97]

Rhodes all the way! However, Jake E. Lee was a huge influence on me as well and he was also a very prolific stage performer. I don't think the Ultimate Sin album got the credit it deserved. Bark at the Moon I could take or leave.

[AlexHerd]

Its gotta be Iommi!

[Even]

I think Zack most impresses me with his flexibility, so overall he gets my vote. Jake Lee is probably the fastest player of the mess, yet Randy really breeched the classical speed barriers. Brad Gillis impressed me more on his own than with Ozzy.

[jet-rocker]

Definetly Iommi.

Iommi wasn't Ozzy's guitar player. Ozzy was Sabbath's singer. Plus the rest of Sabbath can still rock, Ozzy moves like he needs a walker.

-Jett

[scottboyher]

I thought Ozzy played all the guitars on his albums.

[bdbdbuck]

Randy..hands down.

[jet-rocker]

Some of Randy's stuff, playing wise sounded inspired and some of the songs were really good, but he had such horrible tone.

Like a kazoo through a solid state Randall amp. No chunky Iommi goodness there.

-Jett

[Cyrokk]

Tony.

Despite Ozzy's black wardrobe and his metal attitude, Iommi was not only one of the true pioneers of doom metal (and metal in general), but he can still walk the walk. The last collaborations between the two is proof enough. Ozzy sounds his best and most wicked and psychotic when paired with Tony.

[Track Rat]

I love Iommi but Zack is the man.

[monstertruck]

saw ozzy and zakk play a couple months ago and zakk tore the roof off the place!!!
behind the head and sh*t, he's better at playing guitar with his teeth than i am with my hands.

i also heard he started playing with ozzy when he was like seventeen? anyone know?

[tubedude]

Iommi wasnt an Ozzy guitarist, so he is out.
If any of you dingbats honestly think that any of the other guitar players had/have any of Randys fantastic magic, you are truly a crackhead. The other ones play solos. Randy told musical stories instead of playing solos. Listen to the solos in Crowly. Nuff said.
I like the others, but they in no way compare to what Randy had in musicality. He was indeed special.

[tubedude]

Zakk is one of the coolest people I ever had the pleasure to hop in a cab and go bar hopping with though (all on his tab). Real cool dude. Ozzy is a total jackass, though, times 12 and I wish I could have kicked his ass when I had the opportunity to.

[jet-rocker]

I dig the solos on crowley, and suicide solution, and many others--no doubt rr could play-----but...........

Yeah it's Iommi. Snowblind and Into the void and talk about cool sounding solos--heaven and hell, mob rules, paranoid, and hand of doom, fairies wear boots, and black sabbath, and sabbath bloody sabbath and megolomania, and and and and anda and...

I'd buy that ozzy is a jackass.... Stupidest thing I ever saw: Ozzfest, B-Sabbath reunion. Ozzy plays a set of his 'own' songs first with a nobody band. Leaves the stage for 20 minutes while these hacks play a medley of randy's and zakk's songs. Then the loser is too bent out to sing the sabbath songs well. Skip the glory trip OZ...................

Half the songs on No more tears--Lemmy wrote. Motorhead--now there's a balls out underrated band.

-Jett

[6gun]

i voted randy for his unique classic style, but i hated his tone.

like zakk a lot, wicked technical player, like the pick-pinch technique he employs.

jake- his last badlands disc 'dusk' (released overseas) is a monster guitar album. i love his style and straight up marshall in-yo-face tone. dude can play.

gillis and holmes....who are they?

kidding.

[schenkerguy]

Never liked Zack... he can't play for 5 seconds without doing that "harmonic with the wide vibrato" thing, and I hate it.

Bark at the Moon was my favorite with Jake.. his rhythm playing is so cool, big influence on me. The title song is great, and the lead on "center of eternity" was awesome too.

[eyeslikefire]

No brainer.................
Rhodes.

[eyeslikefire]

I thought Ozzy played all the guitars on his albums.

Now thats funny! LOL!!!!!!!!!

[Son of Mixerman]

Oy Vey...


I like Randy's sense of melody and his ability to go from zero to sixty all within the context of the solo. I don't consider Iommi to be a Ozzy Axeman though his riffs are comparable to RR, but fell short on soloing.
I didn't like Randy's tone all that much, but it was not his live tone. Producers choice on the studio stuff. Randy even said he was dissappointed on the Diary tones. It was mixed while he was touring.
Jake had some good tones, but I think his solo's were subpar.

Gillis, is that a joke?

Joe Holmes was a RR student but I can't say Ive heard him play yet.

I like Zakk, he has some good riffs but again his solo's are to riff orient'd and not melodic enough, maybe Its my classical brain but they just don't flow for me. I love the P-harms and the Metaltronix amps. I must say though that Zakks abilities outside of Oz are a different story. Zakk is a pretty cool guy, we were standing around after a he was a guest player for Steve Vai along time ago. Zakk was in Seattle doing BLS stuff. I think Ozzy has limited Zakk. I was blown away to see Zakk and Steve doing harmony and tradeoffs, I saw a side of Zakk Ive never seen before.

Who's Next?

SoMm

[beaverbiscuit]

I voted Rhoads with absolutely no hesitation. I respect the other guitarists (except Holmes, whom I know nothing about), but none of them have the magical something that Randy had. His sheer musicianship and writing skill is awe-inspiring. I'm surprised that so many of y'all hate his tone. I think it's great, myself.

Some have mentioned Zakk's pinch harmonics. It's funny that he's known for them but that Jake isn't. He pulls some great ones in several songs, one example being the lead in "Bark at the Moon." I think Jake was probably miscast with Ozzy; his work in Badlands seems more suited to him.

Does anyone know if there are any recordings of Brad Gillis playing Ozzy songs live? I think he did a decent job on the Sabbath tunes for Speak of the Devil, but I'd be interested to see how he played the RR stuff. I'm sure there's gotta be a bootleg somewhere. Anyone know for sure?

And Tony Iommi, as tubedude pointed out, doesn't really qualify in this reckoning, unless you are looking at guitarists associated with Ozzy.

And what about Bernie Torme?

[SLuiCe]

Randy. I'd be half the player I am today without him.

[6gun]

Originally posted by beaverbiscuit
I'm surprised that so many of y'all hate his tone. I think it's great, myself.

too buzzy, high-end for me.

Some have mentioned Zakk's pinch harmonics. It's funny that he's known for them but that Jake isn't. [/QUOTE]

jake did'em good too, but that's zakk's signature.

[PFDarkside]

I'm glad more people than me recognize what a terrible tone Randy had. His playing, however, was phenominal. Tony and Zakk have much better tones.

As far as who the superior player is/was, I'd say Randy. As far as influential, Tony, definately. As far as my favorite (and the greatest influence on modern metal players) Zakk.