Shot in the Dark

"Shot in the Dark" is a song from Ozzy Osbourne's 1986 album The Ultimate Sin and was written by then Ozzy Osbourne band bassist Phil Soussan. The song's lyrics were written by Soussan and inspired by the movie Prizzi's Honor.

An earlier, much slower and different version was written by Soussan when he was in Wildlife four years earlier. However Osbourne and producer Ron Nevison had rejected the original song, mainly on the basis of the content about a love obsession, and Soussan had to re-write the song including new lyrics. Osbourne then requested 50% ownership of the song as a condition of recording it.

The video features a girl traveling with her friends to an Osbourne concert, and eventually turns into part of a billboard advertising Osbourne. Dweezil Zappa can be seen playing a small part in the music video. This was one of Osbourne's biggest solo hits and was played live regularly up until 1992. There are rumors that Osbourne disliked the song for its very un-Osbourne sound, however those rumors seem to have been spread by Osbourne's management to damage the claim for non-payment of royalties and lawsuit that was brought by Soussan and settled by Osbourne on two separate occasions. Still, Osbourne continued to play the song live regularly and it remains Osbourne's biggest hits peaking at number 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Shot In The Dark" is rumoured to actually have been written not by Soussan but by Steve and Chris Overland of the band Wildlife which also featured Simon Kirke of Free on drums. However, Soussan was also in the band Wildlife at that time, so that is not conclusive. Osbourne allegedly stopped playing the song when he found out about its original authors, but in fact, as stated before, Osbourne felt that it was too "pop" sounding for his later and heavier tours. Of course the Overland brothers have never received a penny from the song, but they never disputed their ownership of the song.