The Ian Harrison’s Views Of Las Vegas channel on YouTube has uploaded video of former Ozzy Osbourne and current LAST IN LINE bassist Phil Soussan performing the Ozzy classic “Shot In The Dark” and Vince Neil’s “Look In Her Eyes” during Phil’s December 6, 2025 concert at the Copa Room at the Tuscany Hotel And Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Backing Soussan at the gig were Zachary Throne (SIN CITY SINNERS) on guitar, Christian Brady (HELLYEAH) on guitar and Brent Fitz (SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS) on drums. Check out the clips below.

Soussan played on Ozzy’s “The Ultimate Sin” album and was credited with co-writing “Shot In The Dark”.

Phil co-wrote “Look In Her Eyes”, which appeared on Neil’s debut solo album, 1993’s “Exposed”. Despite the fact that Phil co-wrote five of the 11 songs on the MÖTLEY CRÜE singer’s disc, Soussan isn’t credited with having played on the record.

Soussan discussed his decision to leave Osbourne’s band during a 2021 appearance on “The Five Count” radio show. Asked about the “weirdness” that went on between him and Ozzy’s camp following his exit from the group, Phil said: “Let me clear this up once and for all. There wasn’t that much weirdness that was going on. I think what happened was I was in a position where I was not able to cut the deal that I wanted. I wanted to do certain things; I wanted to cut a certain type of deal. And kudos to Sharon [Ozzy’s wife and manager]. Listen, she basically presented this to us in a very simple way. We were there, and we were being hired to do our best work — the best work that we could possibly do to make Ozzy sound and look as good as he possibly could. And we also knew that if we were not okay with that situation, there’s probably three dozen people waiting in the wings that would gladly come along and do what we were doing.”

He continued: “It got to a point where I was being expected to write more songs, and I wanted to kind of boost up my publishing and what have you, and for whatever reason, I was not able to cut a deal that was acceptable with Sharon, and I couldn’t really get the same deal that I wanted. And at the moment, I just said, ‘It’s time for me to move on.’ And it was a difficult decision — you leave the biggest band in the country. But I said, ‘You know what? I’ve done it all once. I did one round, one tour, one this, one that, and let me move on and see what happens.’ And I left. And I think she might have been a little upset about that, about the fact that I left. But for whatever reason, we had some accounting issues. So all of a sudden, I was having a hard time getting paid, and my accountants went back and forth a few times. And all of this got resolved eventually. It was just a payment thing — it was, like, late payments and stuff. And I don’t know what the motivation was, or whatever it was, or if there was even a motivation — maybe it was just ‘out of sight, out of mind’ — but once I wasn’t in the band, people weren’t jumping to take my call about things like that. So it got resolved, and it got resolved in probably 1992 or 1993. And ever since then, everything’s just been fine.”

Soussan went on to say that he has heard “some really weird stories” about why he supposedly left Ozzy’s band, including that he had sued Osbourne over unpaid royalties. He clarified: “I was asked to join a lawsuit that [former Ozzy bassist] Bob Daisley had, but I never joined that lawsuit; I didn’t have anything to sue anybody about. I think Bob and Lee [Kerslake, former Ozzy drummer] had some issues that were going on, but when they called me, I just said the same thing I just said to you. I said, ‘Why would I wanna do this?’ So that was it. But all of a sudden, you hear these stories that we were in court. We never went to court. I never sued anybody.”

“The Ultimate Sin” reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified platinum in the United States on May 14, 1986, by the RIAA and and double platinum in October 1994. It was the follow-up to “Bark At The Moon”, which was the first Ozzy album to feature Jake E. Lee on guitar following the tragic death of Randy Rhoads.

The writing sessions for “The Ultimate Sin” were by disagreements over songwriting, with Jake, who claimed he had been cheated out of the credits he deserved on “Bark At The Moon”, later telling Ultimate Classic Rock that he demanded a revised contract before agreeing to contribute. Daisley was dismissed during the making of the LP and Soussan was brought in as is his replacement. Ozzy later invited Daisley to come back to help with the lyric writing, which Bob had shouldered the bulk of since the start of the singer’s solo career.

Seven years ago, Ozzy said that “The Ultimate Sin” was his least favorite album he has ever released as a solo artist. Although it’s currently out of print physically (but available on streaming services),the 1986 LP has been certified double platinum. “[Producer] Ron Nevison didn’t really do a great production job,” Ozzy told Rolling Stone. “The songs weren’t bad; they were just put down weird. Everything felt and sounded the fucking same. There was no imagination. If there was ever an album I’d like to remix and do better, it would be ‘The Ultimate Sin’.”

Daisley, who is credited with all the lyrics on “The Ultimate Sin” apart from “Shot In The Dark” (which is credited to Soussan and Osbourne),later said he was also heavily involved with the music writing on the LP.

“I did write the album with Jake and then Ozzy and I had a falling out and he fired me and he was going to fire Jake as well,” he explained in an interview. “I’ve never been a ‘yes’ man. So a few weeks later, he called me and he had Phil Soussan on bass but I’d already written a lot of the music with Jake, so they knew they had to credit me on the songs anyway, so I guess he thought he may as well get his money’s worth and asked me to come back and write the lyrics also. I did that as sort of a paid job. I write it, you pay me and take it and go. So I spent a few weeks writing the lyrics for the whole album. Then they recorded it. In a way, I am glad I am not on that album. It’s the one album I didn’t really like.”

During a February 2019 interview with Love Is Pop, Soussan claimed that he laid down “some” the bass tracks that ended up on “Exposed” but explained that the story of his involvement with the LP “was an unfortunate one. I had put the whole project together with Vince and we started writing songs and many of those songs were songs that were leftover that I had been writing for Ozzy,” he said. “When I left Ozzy, I took those songs with me. That’s why a lot of that material comes in. So, when you listen to ‘The Edge’, it’s ‘S.A.T.O.’, when you listen to ‘The Look In Her Eyes’, it’s like ‘Bark At The Moon’. Equivalent tracks. And you can hear that. The unfortunate thing is Steve Stevens [Neil’s guitarist for the album], who turned out to be, you know, a bit of a snake in the grass. I don’t know what his personal issues were, but he walked into the project and once he got in there, he basically had expressed his frustration. He was planning on writing all the songs and playing bass on the record and doing all these things. And I said, ‘No, that’s not how it’s gonna work. It’s gonna work as a band.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s how I do it with Billy Idol.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s Billy Idol. That’s not Vince Neil.’ And then he started a process of manipulation. Not a pleasant guy. I don’t know to this day why he did that. I sort of backed out.”

He continued: “At a certain point, it looked like it was going to be very challenging going forward. We had so many problems. The manager had just passed away — Bruce Bird. He was keeping Vince and everybody together, and at that point, it started becoming a mess, and I backed out. And that would’ve been the end of it. Then one day my business manager called me up and said, ‘Oh, you need to know that Steve Stevens has not only put his name on some of your songs, but he’s cut you out.’ I said, ‘That’s it,’ and I served an injunction on Warner Brothers. He had no evidence to support his claim. We had everything. We had all the demos. We had all the lyrics. We had tapes that were recorded that were pre-dated Steve being in the band. He had no way of substantiating this. At the end of the day, that’s how it worked out. But, unfortunately, if you look on the credits on the album, his name is on a bunch of songs even though he did not participate. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

Soussan added: “It’s sad when you meet somebody who’s kind of a jerk and that’s kind of how he was. Nothing against Vince. I still see Vince all the time. And the guys in the band as well. Robbie [Crane]. I love Robbie, who was originally playing guitar in the band [before switching to bass].”

Neil recruited Stevens, Crane and rhythm guitarist Dave Marshall for the “Exposed” tour, which saw Neil opening for VAN HALEN.

A critically acclaimed effort, “Exposed” peaked at No. 13 on the U.S. album chart and failed to earn gold certification.

Stevens told Metal Babe in a 2015 interview that the experience of making “Exposed” and touring behind it was “crazy.” He explained: “I was living in New York at the time, and I had never really worked with an artist from Los Angeles, especially one that came from the L.A. Sunset Strip music scene. Vince was everything that you’d thought he’d be. We had a really good team. Ron Nevison produced the record, who was one of the great ’80s and ’90s record producers. He did all those HEART records. So doing the album was a real change for me, because with Billy Idol, it’s all about playing economically and supporting the vocal and guitar solos if they’re needed, but not every song has a solo, and it’s not all about playing really fast or showing off. I remember when we were starting to put together the songs for the record, Vince would say, ‘Make the solo twice as long, and play faster.’ It was nice to be given this platform for the heavier side of my guitar playing. I think the guitar sound on that record is really good, and I’m really proud of that record. It was a great experience. We knew that before we finished the record that we’d be going out to support VAN HALEN, and Eddie’s a friend of mine, so that part of the touring was just fantastic. It was a real challenge to play in front of a VAN HALEN audience, you know, because if you sucked, they’re gonna let you know.”

Quick reminder for tonight’s show, if you are in the Las Vegas area, please come by to the Copa room at the Tuscany…

Posted by Phil Soussan Music page on Saturday, December 6, 2025