JAKE E. LEE’S BADLANDS RELEASED AN OVERLOOKED GEM 27 YEARS AGO

After former Ozzy Osbourne guitar player, Jake E. Lee discovered he was fired from the Prince Of Darkness’s solo group, his career appeared to be cut short during the height of its success. However, the determined guitarist pushed forward and created a new band, Badlands featuring ex-Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Eric Singer along with bassist Greg Chaisson.

Within a year, their self-titled debut album was released and although it didn’t come anywhere close to the multi-platinum selling records he made during his time with Osbourne, it had plenty of overlooked material. Lee’s Zeppelin-style blues influence is a major driving force that embodies his signature hard rock tone.

Previously, Gillen had toured with Sabbath and payed an unparalleled homage to both eras, exceeding the range of Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio. His David Coverdale- style vocals were very unique and compliment all given material on the record from the heavy blues rock to the power ballads.

The collaboration between Lee and Gillen was a classic partnership that created hard rock gems like High Wire and Hard Driver featuring killer riffs and unnecessary double tracking vocals since Gillen can easily reach the highest notes without anything but raw talent.

Unfortunately, the band that had such a tremendous start in their early history began facing internal tension that would soon destroy them. After Lee and Gillen experienced a public feud that was told in a very descriptive Kerrang! Magazine interview, Gillen was let go within the following months. Two years later, he was diagnosed with HIV and died in 1993.

Lee disbanded Badlands once the final studio release, Dusk was issued in 1998, consisting of the last songs he and Gillen had worked on.

Despite these circumstances that turned the group against each other, they provided an impressive catalog in five short years.