Alex Skolnick on his moment as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist

On January 10, 2025By Littum

Ever since Randy Rhoads got Ozzy Osbourne’s solo career off to a dream start, the Prince of Darkness has had a number of world-class guitar players in his band.

Big hitters like Nuno Bettencourt, George Lynch and Buckethead have either been considered or tried out for the gig over the years and haven’t secured the coveted spot.

But Alex Skolnick falls somewhere in the middle. He was chosen to replace Zakk Wylde, Ozzy’s third full-time guitarist, in 1995, and played one show before being dropped in favor of former David Lee Roth guitarist Joe Holmes. As a result, his less-than-a-month reign stands as a minor footnote in the singer’s history.

Although it was a flash in the pan, Skolnick looks back fondly on his Ozzy Osbourne stint.

“I guess Zakk was doing other things and there was this search for a new Ozzy Osbourne guitarist,” he says Metal hammer. “I was just honored to be in the running because I had heard of some pretty famous players who never got past the audition stage. I actually got to the point where I was doing a show and Ozzy hired me. He said he wanted me to do the gig.”

Skolnick’s only appearance was an unannounced show at Rock City in Nottingham, England. A recording of the group performing “Crazy Train” is among the few memories of the evening.

Skolnick suspects a “management problem” interrupted his tenure. By the sounds of it, Sharon Osbourne wasn’t overwhelmed by the new recruit.

In a 2016 chat with Loudwireeexplained the guitarist that after the concert, “there was one person who didn’t congratulate me. A lot of hints had been dropped — things like, ‘Maybe you could lower the guitar’ or ‘Maybe you could stand like this.’ I realized, oh, I think she wants me to be Zakk Wylde.”

But Skolnick tells Metal hammer he holds no grudge. “It was a great motivation at a time when I didn’t really know what to do,” he says.

The guitarist had recently left Testament, the thrash metal band with which he made his name. He played at Savatage’s Handful of Rain the previous year and became involved in a number of projects including School Patrol, which played theme songs from police TV shows; Attention Deficit, a trio with bassist Michael Manring and Primus drummer Tim Alexander; and prog-rock band Stratospheerius, led by electric violinist Joe Deninzon.

Alex Skolnick with ESP Guitar

(Image credit: Kevin Wilson)

“It was when I enrolled in a university called the New School, in New York,” he continues. “I studied with these greats like (jazz musicians) Cecil McBee and Reggie Workman.

Skolnick returned to Testament in 2005 and has written four albums with the band since.

But by scoring a gig with Ozzy, he went further than most. Chris Impellitteri was at the height of his neoclassical shredding powers in the late 80s when Ozzy was looking for a replacement for the departing Jake E. Lee. But despite catching Ozzy’s eye and securing an audition, he lost out to a then-unknown talent named Zakk Wylde. The shredder, who has hit back at critics of his left-field picking technique, recently took a trip down memory lane with Guitar playerand reveals the details behind some of his biggest tracks.