METALLICA’s Fun Memory with Ozzy Osbourne in 1986 Tour

METALLICA and BLACK SABBATH go on the “Master of Puppets” album tour, but is drinking prohibited? Kirk Hammett tells a funny memory with Ozzy Osbourne in that tour.

In 1986, heavy metal band METALLICA released one of the legendary albums of metal music, “Master of Puppets”. BLACK SABBATH accompanied the album’s promotional tour, and Ozzy Osbourne was the band’s vocalist at the time. There were quite a few misfortunes during the tour and one of the sad events in the history of music. The tour bus crashed and Cliff Burton died in Sweden in 1986.

Before this sad event happened, everything was going very well and enjoyable. METALLICA was rising on the Billboard charts and METALLICA members were touring with their idol, BLACK SABBATH. Kirk Hammett recently told one of these fun moments.

METALLICA guitarist and songwriter Kirk Hammett spoke to Gibson TV Icons recently. Talking about the “Master of Puppets” promotional tour during the conversation, the artist talked about an entertaining memory of METALLICA with Ozzy Osbourne.

Kirk Hammett said that BLACK SABBATH is in a different place for METALLICA members, and they consider them to be the best in music history. That’s why this tour was very exciting and stressful for them. It was a dream to go on an album promotion tour with their idols.

“To me, at that point, Black Sabbath was the ultimate, and even to this day I still feel that. And to be touring with the lead singer, the former lead singer of Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne) was just a huge thing.”

Kirk Hammett also said that Cliff Burton was a huge BLACK SABBATH fan and did everything to be close to them throughout the tour. Cliff Burton even played BLACK SABBATH riffs to get Ozzy’s attention. He explains how they managed to get Ozzy’s attention while they were doing a soundcheck on stage one day;

“And all of a sudden, out in front of the stage there’s Ozzy with a big ole smile, going, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ And oh my god, it was amazing for us to be acknowledged by Ozzy during that soundcheck!”

Kirk said Cliff and Ozzy got very close and chatted together during the tour, and he didn’t forget to remember his former bassist Cliff.

METALLICA’s interesting memory with Ozzy Osbourne

Kirk told about a very entertaining memory between METALLICA and Ozzy.

During the tour, their bus stopped at a truck stop and Sharon Osbourne (Ozzy’s wife) told them not to drink. This was actually a ban for Ozzy Osbourne and they tried to obey this rule.

“‘Can’t drink. If you’re going to drink, pour in a solo cup, but don’t give them any booze, don’t be seen drinking around him.’ Just like none of that. We’re like, ‘Fine, Sharon.'”

At another bus stop, people left Ozzy’s tour bus and only Ozzy remained. Suddenly Ozzy came to the METALLICA truck and said; ‘Got any beer?’ And Cliff is like, ‘Yes, right there, help yourself.’

They drank with Ozzy on the bus for 20 minutes but were also very stressed by Sharon’s rule.

“We did not know what to do. We were whispering: ‘He’s drinking! What are we gonna do?’ And we had no idea what we were gonna do.

I remember at one point, our tour manager went off the bus, went on to Ozzy’s bus, grabbed their tour manager, and said, ‘We’re in a real situation here. Got to get Ozzy off our bus!'”

Then he said that the tour managers came and took Ozzy out of the truck. They actually did a lot of things to get kicked out of the tour, but that didn’t happen.