During a recent conversation with The Metal Voice, former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee shared some details about the financial aspect of his past as an Ozzy guitarist.
Photo: Broadcast
Focusing on his stage with Ozzy during the year 1983 and on the album "Bark at the Moon", which came out the same year in November, Jake said the following:
"I was young [I was 26 years old], and in those days there was little information about how the music business worked, and I trusted people.
"From the beginning I was told that I would get a fair share of the composition and publication credits, and I took them on, which was a mistake, but it was never for the money."
"I'm pretty sure I was paid around $ 100 a week [when I joined the band] [about $ 260 in 2018 money], but it would increase gradually because they were not sure of me.
"Then it doubled and it would continue doubling and so on, and I did not care much for the truth because I went from having no money or band to being in Ozzy.
"I was going to get $ 5,000 [about $ 13,000 in money in 2018] to record 'Bark at the Moon' and get credits and publications, but when I finally got the contract, they gave me another $ 10,000 [about $ 26,000 in cash] 2018] to compensate for not having credits ".