As a renowned stalwart of the British hard rock scene for four decades, bass player Bob Daisley survived all manner of rock excess while touring with Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow and Gary Moore, and contributed to a long list of great heavy metal and blues albums that remain influential and iconic.
Born in Sydney, Australia he originally started out playing guitar but took up the bass at the age of 14 after being inspired by the soul grooves of American R&B and the explosive blues-rock squall of Cream's Jack Bruce. He founded hazy prog-rock outfits Mecca and Khavas Jute in his teens, but having just turned 21 he headed to London in 1971, cutting his teeth playing with Stan Webb's blues band Chicken Shack and touring with Mungo Jerry.
His hard rock group Widowmaker with Mott the Hoople guitarist Ariel Bender produced two albums that were cult, underground favourites, and the band supported The Who, Nazareth and ELO, but they split while on tour in North America and Daisley was soon recruited by Richie Blackmore to join metal titans Rainbow for two years. By 1979 Ozzy Osbourne was looking to re-start his career and so Daisley and guitarist Randy Rhoads joined him for the 'Blizzard of Ozz' album and helped him craft the classic, occultist anthems 'Suicide Solution' and 'Crazy Town'. Despite being sacked on different occasions and becoming involved in lawsuits over royalties and performance credits, Daisley stayed with the notorious front man throughout the 1980s and he played a key role on Osbourne's solo albums 'Diary of a Mad Man', 'Bark at the Moon' and 'No More Tears'. He was also briefly a member of Uriah Heep before starting a long-running gig as sideman for Gary Moore, playing on eight albums by the blues rock guitar icon, starting with the acclaimed 'Victims of the Future' in 1983 and finishing with 'Power of the Blues' in 2004.
Over his career Daisley also featured on sessions with Yngwie Malmsteen, Takara and Jeff Watson and on Black Sabbath's 1987 album 'The Eternal Idol', but in later years he returned to Australia and played with Jimmy Barnes in the band Living Loud and with Jon Lord in The Hoochie Coochie Men.
