Dokken Guitarist Calls Ozzy Osbourne ‘Disingenuous’ For Hiring 18-Year-Old Guitar Player

Dokken guitarist George Lynch has called out Ozzy Osbourne, calling him “disingenuous” for hiring an 18-year-old guitar player. Lynch has been open on his criticisms of certain celebrities in the metal scene, namely Osbourne and also Ronnie James Dio, along with Judas Priest and Whitesnake.

Lynch states that he doesn’t understand why musicians hire younger musicians. “I think about any of these legacy bands like Whitesnake, Judas Priest,” he says. “All along the past years, I’ve had little incidents of opportunities or discussions of being in other bands.”

Dokken guitarist has some thoughts on Ozzy hiring an 18-year-old guitarist

“But what I never got was why these guys would want to go with a newer cat. ‘Yeah, you’re shredder and all this, you can do all that and play over the top and play 19 fingers and billions of notes…” he continues, according to MetalCastle.net.

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“But if you’re a classic, legacy, blues-based, hard rock band, that’s what you want, you want that guy. And whether it’s me or somebody else, I don’t understand why these older cats go for the young guys.”

Lynch continues: “It’s just very disingenuine to me. Like Ozzy, or Ronnie James Dio hiring an 18-year old guitar player, and he’s like 70 – that doesn’t make any sense…  Dude, get guys your age that comes from the same place. And that’s what people want to hear too. I want to hear, like, Deep Purple, I don’t want to hear some shred guy in Deep Purple, I want Blackmore, I want to hear those songs, and I want to hear that.”

“That’s the thing. If you’re Bon Jovi – I’m speculating, nothing about Bon Jovi’s business, but I’m sure Richie Sambora was getting a giant percentage as a founding member versus whoever they could hire. I mean, paying 10k a week, that’s nothing compared to what a founding member is getting off a band that’s making those guarantees.”