Tommy Clufetos says that he has no regrets about the way he left Rob Zombie‘s band in order to play with Ozzy Osbourne. Clufetos was hired by Ozzy in 2010, leaving Zombie in desperate need of a drummer.
“In life, you get certain opportunities and you have to make a choice: am I gonna go with this opportunity or am I gonna stay in the situation that I’m in?” Tommy told Rocking With Jam Man (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “So when Ozzy called, I had to go in that opportunity.
“Sometimes people may get hurt and feelings may get hurt, especially in music, ’cause we’re all emotional people and we love what we do, and it’s not just a business to us — it’s an emotional thing.
“Rob was great to me,” Tommy added. “And was it easy to leave him because I respect him? It wasn’t easy, but it was just something that I had to do for myself. And I’m sure time has passed on with both of us. I’ve spoken to Rob — we actually did one of the last Ozzy gigs on a New Year’s Eve here [in Los Angeles] at the Forum [with Rob Zombie also on the bill] — and I saw Rob, and everything’s totally fine. So there’s no hard feelings on either side. It’s just that we love what we do and we’re emotional about our craft. And sometimes feelings come into play and people react. But me and Rob are totally cool, and Ozzy‘s totally cool, and it’s all good.”
In a 2010 interview with the Artisan News Service, Zombie stated about his musicians being hired away by Ozzy: “I think there’s ways to do things and I think there’s ways to not do things and I think the way they’ve chosen to do things is not how I would do things; I think it’s kind of rude. I mean, if my guys that I have wanna go play with other people, that’s fine; I don’t own them. But I think there’s ways to do things in a respectful way and there’s ways to just be shitty, and I feel that the way things have gone down lately has been pretty shitty… I’m just happy because every time I’ve lost somebody, I’ve gotten somebody ten times better, so I’m thankful for that. So if somebody’s band wants to be made up of my cast-offs, enjoy.”
Zombie and Ozzy have been friends for a long time. They collaborated on a song called “Iron Head” for Zombie‘s second solo album, 2001’s “The Sinister Urge”, and Zombie directed a video for Ozzy‘s 2001 single “Dreamer”. Zombie has also toured with Ozzy several times.
Clufetos‘s new band TOMMY’S ROCKTRIP, where he offers his take on the rock ‘n roll influences that made him one of the most sought-after drummers in the current hard rock scene, will release its debut album, “Beat Up By Rock ‘N’ Roll”, on May 7 via Frontiers Music Srl. Eric Dover, known for singing and playing guitar with JELLYFISH, SLASH’S SNAKEPIT and Alice Cooper, handles lead vocals on the LP (though Tommy grabs the mic for three tracks). Eliot Lorengo (bass), Hank Schneekluth (guitar) and Nao Nakashima (guitar) round out the supporting cast.
