Not Much Can Freak Out Ozzy Osbourne, but This Eccentric Guitarist Did

Finding a musician who can out-weird Ozzy Osbourne is no small feat, but in the early 2000s, one particularly eccentric guitarist rose to the challenge. Indeed, freaking out Ozzy Osbourne is a challenge. We’re talking about the same guy who snorted a line of ants to impress Mötley Crüe.

The same guy who lapped up his own urine off a pool deck. Bit a head off a live bat. Need we say more? Wild and stomach-turning antics aside, it turns out that all Osbourne needs to feel sufficiently disturbed is a shady sense of identity.

The Eccentric Guitarist Who Freaked Out Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne has been active in the heavy metal scene ever since his band, Black Sabbath, helped establish it in the early 1970s. He’s undoubtedly seen (and done) some of the wildest, darkest things that a rock lover could imagine. But when it came time to audition a new guitarist for his solo band in the early 2000s, one especially eccentric instrumentalist proved too weird and off-putting even for the Prince of Darkness.

“I tried out that Buckethead guy,” Osbourne revealed in a 2005 interview with Revolver (via Blabbermouth). “I met him and asked him to work with me, but only if he got rid of the f***ing bucket. So, I came back a bit later, and he’s wearing this green f***ing Martian hat thing. I said, ‘Look, just be yourself!’”

“He told me his name was Brian, so I said that’s what I’d call him. He says, ‘No one calls me Brian except my mother.’ So, I said, ‘Pretend I’m your mum then!’” Osbourne recalled. “I haven’t even got out of the room, and I’m already playing f***ing mind games with the guy. What happens if one day he’s gone and there’s a note saying, ‘I’ve been beamed up?’ Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great player. He plays like a motherf*****.”

The Odd Instrumentalist Kind Of Seems Like A Perfect Fit

If you’re unfamiliar, “Buckethead” is the stage name for Brian Carroll, an American guitarist famous for his performance get-up of a plain white mask (á la Michael Meyers from Halloween) and an upside-down KFC bucket that he wears as a hat. Buckethead was briefly the lead guitarist for Guns N’ Roses from 2000 to 2004, which would plausibly explain why he was on Ozzy Osbourne’s radar as a potential lead guitarist in 2005.

But even without Buckethead’s recent Guns N’ Roses appearance, the two musicians together make sense, collaboratively speaking. Just listen to Buckethead perform “Welcome to Bucketheadland.” Remind you of any other famous rock and roll songs? Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” perhaps? The changes in the lead riff are just subtle enough to avoid any direct plagiarism, but the two artists’ styles clearly favor.

Nevertheless, the collaboration never came to be. Osbourne and Buckethead parted ways after that brief meeting, maintaining a sense of respect for one another, even if it’s accompanied by a healthy dash of confusion on Osbourne’s part. Maybe Buckethead should have, we don’t know, bit the head off a bat or something to show Osbourne he was a kindred spirit and not an alien from outer space.

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