Jake E. Lee, the legendary guitarist who helped shape Ozzy Osbourne’s sound throughout the mid-1980s, has shared a story so bizarre and funny it could only come from life on the road with the Prince of Darkness himself.
In a recent interview with *Guitar World*, Lee looked back fondly on one of his most memorable moments from the *Speak of the Devil* tour in 1983. The moment came during a performance of *War Pigs*, the classic anti-war anthem by Black Sabbath — but things didn’t exactly go as expected.
“One of my favorite Ozzy stories was from that tour,” Lee, now 68, shared. “We were doing *War Pigs*, and it’s the first verse, and Ozzy looks at me and mouths, ‘What are the words?’”
Caught off guard, Lee — who did know the lyrics — froze. “He stumped me,” he admitted. “I wasn’t expecting that. I didn’t want to say the wrong words, so I just said, ‘I don’t know…’”
What happened next could only happen in an Ozzy Osbourne show.
“So he started singing *Old MacDonald Had a Farm,*” Lee said with a laugh. “It was genius. He sang it like, ‘Old MacDonald haaaad a faaarm, he had some pigs with an oink oink here, and an oink oink therrrrre.’”
Fans at the front of the crowd were stunned. “I remember looking at the punters in the front row, and they were just like, ‘What the f— is going on?’” Lee added.
Despite the surreal moment, Lee says it actually worked in its own twisted way. While the original *War Pigs* begins with ominous lyrics like *“Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses,”* Ozzy’s impromptu version of the children’s classic brought the house down — though perhaps not in the way anyone expected.
The *Speak of the Devil* tour came at a pivotal moment in Ozzy’s solo career, with Jake E. Lee stepping in as lead guitarist following the tragic death of Randy Rhoads. Lee’s blistering guitar work helped define the sound of albums like *Bark at the Moon* (1983) and *The Ultimate Sin* (1986), but it’s these wild, unpredictable moments that he seems to cherish the most.
This unforgettable onstage hiccup is just one more story in the long, chaotic history of Ozzy Osbourne’s legendary career — a career that came to a dramatic close this year with the *Back to the Beginning* farewell show in Birmingham on July 5. The event saw Ozzy perform *War Pigs* one final time with his Black Sabbath bandmates — this time, without any nursery rhymes — before passing away just weeks later, on July 22, at his home in Buckinghamshire.
The farewell show featured appearances from rock icons like Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Pantera, and more, and is set to be released as a concert film next year. It marked the end of an era, not just for Ozzy, but for everyone who ever shared a stage or tour bus with him — including Jake E. Lee.
As fans continue to mourn Ozzy’s passing, it’s stories like these that highlight the unique spirit and humor he brought to heavy metal. Even in a song as dark and political as *War Pigs*, Ozzy could throw in a farmyard twist — and somehow, it would still work.
Lee’s memory is a reminder that while Ozzy Osbourne redefined the boundaries of rock, he never lost his unpredictability — or his ability to make people laugh, even in the middle of chaos.
Leave a Reply