Jake E. Lee, former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, was shot while walking his dog in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning, TMZ was the first to report.
Lee, 67, is currently in intensive care at a Las Vegas hospital. Though he was shot multiple times, his rep told TMZ that none of the wounds was fatal. He is “fully conscious and doing well” and expected to make a full recovery.
Police investigators do not currently believe that Lee was targeted by an assassin. According to TMZ, they think this was a “completely random” street shooting.
Lee, born Jakey Lou Williams, is fondly regarded by millions of music fans for accepting the Herculean task of replacing the beloved late Randy Rhoads in Osbourne’s solo band. Rhoads died in 1982, when a plane piloted by Andrew Aycock and also carrying makeup artist Rachel Youngblood crashed after clipping the band’s tour bus during a prank gone tragically wrong. All three were killed.
Lee played guitar on two seminal metal records: 1983’s “Bark at the Moon” and 1986’s “The Ultimate Sin,” and toured extensively with Osbourne’s band. But he was fired in 1987 by Osbourne’s manager-wife, Sharon Osbourne, apparently for failing to get along with either her or drummer Randy Castillo.
Lee, who was replaced in Ozzy’s band by Zakk Wyle, went on to form additional heavy metal bands. His latest is Red Dragon Cartel, with whom he last recorded and toured in 2018. Lee co-founded it with Vegas musician and studio owner Ronnie Mancuso and English singer Darren James Smith.
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