Guitarist Jake E. Lee Addresses Las Vegas Shooting

Posted on: October 17, 2024, 06:14h. 

Last updated on: October 18, 2024, 09:22h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Jake E. Lee reached out from his Las Vegas hospital bed on Thursday, where the former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist is recovering from multiple nonfatal gunshot wounds.

Ozzy Osbourne and Jake E. Lee, circa 1983, in a photo shared this week by Osbourne. (Image: Instagram/@ozzyosbourne)

“I deeply appreciate all the concern and well wishes,” Lee posted on the Facebook page of his current band, Red Dragon Cartel. “To clarify, I was shot three times. I was on my way back home from walking my dog Coco.”

Lee wrote that he feels “relatively very lucky” because “the police found 15 shell casings at the scene, which means he emptied his clip on me.

I could only dodge so many, so one bullet went through my forearm, one through my foot, and one in the back which broke a rib and damaged a lung,” he continued. “Priority now is to keep draining my lung till it’s done crying. Then we can pull that tube out and concentrate on the more minor injuries.”

Lee, 67, is expected to make a full recovery.

“And by the way,” he added, “Coco’s fine and appreciates your inquiries!”

Long, Hard Rhoads

Lee, born Jakey Lou Williams, is fondly regarded by millions of music fans for taking on 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 Osbourne records: 1983’s “Bark at the Moon” and 1986’s “The Ultimate Sin,” and toured extensively with his band. He was fired in 1987 by Osbourne’s manager-wife, Sharon Osbourne, apparently for failing to get along with Randy Castillo, Osbourne’s former drummer.

Osbourne, who is 75 and suffering with a rare form of Parkinson’s disease, took to Instagram to wish his old collaborator well after hearing the news.

“It’s been 37 years since I’ve seen Jake E. Lee, but that still doesn’t take away from the shock of hearing what happened to him,” he wrote. “It’s just another senseless act of gun violence. I just hope he’ll be ok.”

Lee, 67, was shot around 2:45 a.m. on October 15, while walking Coco near his driveway in the Southern Highlands suburb of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas police are seeking, but have so far failed to find, the guitarist’s assailant. They do not believe he was targeted for assassination, but rather, was a victim of a “completely random” shooting.