Guitarist Jake E. Lee told a friend he was “one lucky mother fucker” after being shot multiple times in Las Vegas earlier this week.
On Wednesday, former Guns N’ Roses and Sixx:A.M. guitarist D.J. Ashba shared a screen grab of a text message exchange between him and Lee on Instagram Stories. After Ashba asked if Lee was doing OK, Lee replied, “Doing surprisingly well. I am one lucky motherfucker.”
Keeping up his good spirits, Lee added: “Just make sure your bday bash is wheelchair accessible! Just jestin’.”
Lee — who’s best known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands — was in his driveway early Tuesday morning, about to walk his dog, when he was shot. Lee was hit in the forearm, the back, and foot, and while one bullet broke a rib, none of the shots hit any vital organs (per the Las Vegas Review-Journal). A neighbor heard the shots and called the police, and Lee was eventually rushed to the hospital.
A statement from Lee’s rep at the time said the guitarist was “doing well in an intensive care unit” and was “expected to fully recover.” The rep also said Las Vegas authorities “believe the shooting was completely random.” The investigation is still ongoing, and no arrests have been made yet.
In recent years, Lee had been playing with Red Dragon Cartel, though an issue with a lack of cartilage in his right hand forced him to focus on pain management and physical therapy to get back into performance shape. When he was coming up in the Eighties, Lee played with Ratt, Rough Cutt, and Dio before scoring a gig as Osbourne’s; after that, he formed the blues-rock band Badlands with another ex-Black Sabbath Singer, Ray Gilles. He’s also released three solo albums.
Following the shooting, Osbourne issued a statement, saying, “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 today. It’s just another senseless act of gun violence.”
