The latest episode of the Osbournes’ podcast sees the family briefly discuss the existence of former Ozzy bassist Bob Daisley’s so-called ‘Holy Grail’ demos – said to document some seven hours of sessions with Randy Rhoads.
“Someone commented on a post someone and it was like,‘Oh when's Ozzy going to let Bob Daisley release the recordings of Randy Rhoads writing in the studio?’” reports Jack Osbourne [around 13.15, below].
“Supposedly – I don't know if it exists – but there's audio recordings of Randy, Dad and Daisley writing stuff for Blizzard… or Diary… and Daisley's gone out and said, ‘Oh Ozzy’s not letting me release it.’
“I turned around and said, ‘Why should he release it? He should give it to Randy's family and it should be up to them if they release it or not.’”
“Exactly,” chimes in Sharon.
Daisley has previously confirmed the existence of the recordings and even shared snippets of them alongside an interview on his website in 2014.
The bassist maintains he has around seven hours’ worth of material recorded during the writing sessions for Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman sessions between December 8, 1979 and March 23, 1981 and dubs them the ‘Holy Grail’ tapes.
He has previously insisted the block on their release has come from the Osbourne camp, alleging to Rock Cellar in 2012 that the reason they were missing from the 2010 album reissues was due to a disagreement over royalties.
He also commented in the aforementioned 2014 interview that “Kelle Rhoads has heard snippets that I played him over the phone, and he loved what he heard, he'd love to see the ‘Grail’ released.”
In this instance, though, it seems the Osbournes are clearly deferring to Rhoads’ estate when it comes to the fate of the demos – though Osbourne does pour cold water on the idea in his conversation.
“The quality sucks,” comments Ozzy [around 34.15] “[He’d record] everything we ever did. He would record the fucking milkman… The quality was fucking dreadful.”
“[He recorded] on a cassette machine,” says Sharon. “A tiny little cassette machine. And it’s not for us to do anything with.”
Last year, Ozzy Osbourne’s producer during that period, Max Norman, discussed Rhoads’ fastidious approach to taping his lead work.
“Randy had a very clear vision of what he wanted to achieve,” Norman told Guitar World last year. “To this end, he’d often play what most people would consider to be a perfect take and say, ‘No, that doesn’t feel quite right – let’s redo it.’
“Other times he’d say something like, ‘Goddamn, that felt really good, but I didn’t catch the harmonic I wanted on one note, and it’s got to be there.’ I’d look at him in astonishment, thinking, ‘Are we really gonna blow off this great take and record over it?’ He’d say, ‘I’ve got this,’ and then, sure enough, he’d play it again and nail that missing harmonic perfectly!”
