80s Guitar Icon Claims a Producer Offered Him $500 To Change One Note—and He Refused

Jake E. Lee knew not to mess with “Winter’s Call.” In an interview with Guitar World, the Badlands co-founder and guitarist revealed that everyone was not initially impressed by the 1989 track, which is now considered one of the band’s best.

“That’s the one where the first note in the solo is kind of off,” Lee told the outlet of “Winter’s Call.”

At least that’s what co-producer Paul O’Neill thought, according to Lee.

“He said, ‘Please, that first note, it just throws me for a loop,’” Lee recalled. ” I said, ‘I don’t want to change it. That’s why I like that note so much! I think that note’s perfect.’”

In fact, Lee said that O’Neill was so turned off by the note that he “tried bribing me with money” to change it.

“He said, ‘I’ll give you 500 bucks right now out of my wallet, and tickets to see Cats, and I’ll buy you dinner at the finest restaurant,’” Lee said. “And he said, ‘I’m not even saying we’ll use another one, I just want to hear one where it’s not that weird note.’”

Lee declined the offer, telling O’Neill simply, “Nope.”

“I knew if I recorded another one, somehow, that would end up being it,” he said.

That wasn’t an option for Lee, who noted, “I remember I wanted it to be kind of psychedelic-sounding. It’s kind of out of tune, but I liked it so much.”

“We kept it, even though it’s a little bit out of tune. The feel of it, I thought, was really cool,” Lee said. “I go through different modes; there was a Locrian mode in there, a Phrygian, and I was doing all these things to try and sound like I took acid in the Sixties.”

Jake E. Lee Discusses Badlands

“Winter’s Call” appeared on Badlands’ self-titled debut album. The LP is what Lee considers his best work. That’s true despite his lengthy tenure as Ozzy Osbourne‘s lead guitarist.

“To be honest, by the end of my tenure with Ozzy, I wanted to branch out more,” Lee explained. “I always like a hard rock edge to whatever I’m playing, but I wanted to experiment a little more.”

Lee got to do just that with Badlands.

“The high point of my musical career, really, was Badlands,” he said. “I mean, it was also Ozzy because I was thrown into it from playing clubs and into Ozzy, which was wonderful. But with Badlands, as far as creativity, working with other musicians, and having a band unit, that was as good as it ever got.”

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