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Cinemetal, Editorials

JOE HOLMES, OZZY OUTCAST

 Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 1:00pm by

To clarify my comments on Jake E. Lee yesterday: I wasn’t attacking  Mr. Lee’s technical skill. But, with all due respect to my man Vince, I’m not a fan of “Bark at the Moon” or anything else from the Lee era, for that matter. Yes, it sucks that Sharon fired him by telegram, but I actually think Zakk got it worse – ’cause Zakk’s humiliation was public. Just sayin’.

ANYWAY, I don’t make apologies for my slight to Joe Holmes. Holmes replaced Zakk Wylde after the release of Ozzmosis ’cause Zakk was off chasing a potential gig with Guns N’ Roses (Somewhere there are demos of a GN’R featuring co-leads by Slash and Zakk, and although I’m sure that music had guitar-masturbation overload, I’d still love to hear them some day. Fat chance, I know.). The big stink about Holmes at the time was that he’d been a student of Randy Rhodes and was therefore supposed to be the second coming or something.

No such luck – poor dude stayed with Ozzy until Zakk returned in 2000, and never even got to record with Ozzy… actually, as far as I know, he’s the only person to be in Ozzy’s band for so long and not get to make an album. He did get to play on the song “Walk on Water” from the movie Beavies and Butthead Do America, and worked on Down to Earth – in fact, several songs he co-wrote remain on that record, although none of them are memorable (and Earth pretty much blows, although I blame producer Tim Palmer as much as anyone).

I never saw Holmes live with Ozzy, but I did manage to find this video of him playing “Perry Mason” on Ozzfest. It’s edited all to fuck but it does give you a sense of what Holmes must’ve been like live. He’s a scrawny motherfucker, but otherwise seems to have “the look” down, at least. Also, the video has some boobies as an added bonus.

Side note: Holmes also played with Lizzy Borden for awhile, but, if I’m not mistaken, never got to play on a Borden album. It’s like the dude was cursed or something.

-AR

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  • http://www.myspace.com/uglydirge aaron m.

    maybe it’s just me, but it sounds like holmes is trying to out-pick squeal zakk wylde on this video.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mikal-Ducharme/669004824 Mikaël Ducharme

    why the fuck does he keep calling him “Rhodes”. It Randy Rhoads!!!!

  • http://www.twitter.com/DanContogiannis Dan Contogiannis

    Holmes can play. And I know it’s been said many times before, but Trujillo is a beast.

  • CarlosRamirez

    I’m a huge Lizzy Borden fan (laugh all you want) and when Joe Holmes joined Ozzy’s band I had high hopes. But his songwriting contributions were a big disappointment. That said, Jake E. Lee is a better songwriter and classier player than Wylde.

    • stu1

      I hated his playing style. Very 80s/dated sounding to me. Granted, Wylde’s style has been beaten to hell at this point, but the first couple of records it was great.

  • http://www.hibernum.net hibernum

    Ooooh, the crabwalker! Yeah, Joe Holmes never worked out. Good guitarists are a dime a dozen, but good guitarists that can write well are hard to find. Did you ever read that interview Ozzy gave about auditioning Buckethead?

    http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.Net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=31127

    Nobody plays guitar anymore, they just make a noise

  • Jack Meoff

    of course we also get Rob Trujillo’s fucking stupid crab walking and Ozzy reading from the teleprompter….shit is pathetic

  • You Don’t Know Me

    I miss Trujillo in Ozzy’s band. I think the whole crabwalk thing is retarded too but the motherfucker can play so I can’t really fault him too much. Rob needs to quit Metallica and go back to Ozzy. Blasko sucks balls and when it comes to the mix on Metallica albums, looks like Rob is getting the Jason Newstead treatment, so why not?

  • dlux

    ozzy doesn’t deserve someone as creative as buckethead in his band

  • http://www.metalsucks.net Vince Neilstein

    I really enjoyed this video! It’s an interesting Ozzy band lineup — Trujillo / Bordin / Holmes. Wonder where Randy Castillo was during this period?

    • stu1

      Motley Crue, right?

  • Phil

    Dear Axl, please stop calling Randy “Rhodes”, his surname is Rhoads. Thank you.

  • dEV

    I hate this song. Why is Ozzy singing about a TV show from the ’50s? Definitely in my top-five worst Ozzy songs.

    • cougar party

      I actually love this song. Looks like we’ll never be friends.

  • http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8345/outside21.jpg Revrant

    Have to agree again, I didn’t like anything but Shot in the Dark from Jake, which is admittedly light for Ozzy, and I just don’t care for Bark at the Moon, at all.

    “(and Earth pretty much blows, although I blame producer Tim Palmer as much as anyone”

    No, fuck you.

    That’s all I have to add for that, enjoy.

    Didn’t you guys already say you’ve never seen Ozzy live? So why the fuck would you have “not seen” Holmes? You haven’t seen any of them fucking period, which is why you guys fail at life in this regard.

    Stop sucking DEP’s 15 seconds worth of dick and whacking off to Slayer’s brootality and get an Ozzfest ticket so you can see a shambled figure crack out halfway decent renditions of his own songs and wonder why he can still manage it at all, and you’ll have earned some metal respect for fuck’s sake.

  • Dustin at Metal Blade

    The best part was the boobies…

  • Hector Camacho

    motherfuckers you don´t nothing about this guy also being a young student of a great master randy rhoads ,he also play guitar for a great album that it was visual lies from lizzy borden play in some videos from them,also for some shows .
    and of course he isn´t coursed at all fucker ,he plays also for david lee roth replasing jason becker other great master and hero ,for his illness. men please get real information about this rock great masters joe holmes is another good ghitar player that play with great singers as david and ozzy.

    • jc1305us

      Saw Joe Holmes with Ozzy in 1996-7 I forget at Jones Beach in Long Island, NY. Wasn’t expecting him, but he gave a good performance as far as I remember. He was supposed to be the next big thing, but I guess we all know how that went!

  • RJS

    sorry but Jake was Ozzy’s best guitarist by far, much better than Holmes which is why he never did record anything. just watch Jake in these videos especially during the solo’s.

  • Tim Hartson

    I heard Joe was in the studio back in 2008 working on a CD. Haven’t heard anything since. Anyone have any info on what Joe’s been up to?

  • Neal harris

    I saw Ozzy with Joe Holmes , I Had no idea how this guy was! were was Zakk!!! I Said!
    but this guy can play his ass off!!! he sounded like all Ozzy past players. and I was hope this guy was going to say with Ozzy. all so Ozzy said at the show”this is the best band I EVER PLAY WITH!!!”
    i WILL NEVER FORGET THAT!!! Ozzy When Zakk goes this time, you need Joe back.and on a cd!!

  • Vinny

    First off, anyone talking down on Jake is a complete idiot! Jake is one of the most underated guitar players ever, go find a copy of any of the 3 Badlands albums & you will eat your own words! Also I love Zakk but Zakk could never really pull off Jakes songs, he slopped them up alot.

    I’ve seen Joe Holmes on many occasions with Ozzy & he pulled off all the Randy, Jake & Zakk material while still adding his own touch to things & not killing the songs. Also saw the show where they played Diary of a Madman(song) for the first time live & he tore it up! I met him at Ozzfest 2000 in Philly & he was a hell of a nice guy & was very mellow until I asked him about if he was ever gonna write with Ozzy. At this point he got really hyper an emotional, seemed very frustrated with the whole situation. Joe also stated he & Rob Trujillio had alot of songs written & where just waiting to hear if they where going to play on the next album.

    They did eventually go into the studio with Ozzy & started to record, but the producer at the time(whom slips my mind at the moment) kept screwing with things behind Ozzy’s back & was eventually fired. Since that happened, all the tracks that where recorded could not be used without giving the producer credit & money. So when this happened Sharon stepped in & proceeded to ruin Ozzy’s career by getting Tim Palmer & telling Ozzy to bring Zakk back in to record. Which I would not have had a probelm with Zakk being back if they actually let him write for the album. Zakk has been quoted at saying that it was extremely frustrating for him & the only reason he did it was because he loved Ozzy, but he actually hated the album & Tim Palmer & said Tim even had the nerve to take the guitar out of Zakk’s hand & tell him to play it his way.

    Bottom line is, Joe Holmes got screwed because Sharon was in the process of trying to change Ozzy & in turn ruined Ozzy’s career. She continues to do this now as Zakk was fired for some young wanna be shredder kid, Gus aka “I’m gonna do the impossible & make an even worse album then Down To Earth”

  • Mark

    The Band that played the OZZFEST 2000 shows was without a doubt the best band OZZY has played. Joe Holmes is the best guitarist since Randy, I’ve seen them all Brad, Jake, Zakk and Randy. Of course that’s just my opinion. I also remember how much Jake admired Joe when they rehearsed at the same studio.

    Joe did record with Lizzy Bordon on Visual Lies, it was produced by Max Norm..

    I know Joe will release an album in the near future and I’m sure it will be incredible. .