Ozzy Osbourne has brought in Alice In Chains' Mike Inez to

temporally fill the bass player position in his current touring band until a

permanent replacement for the disgruntled Geezer Butler is found. The

"official" reason Butler (Ozzy's old buddy and bassist from Black Sabbath days)

left the tour was that he "found the tour too tiring and too long a

commitment," but insiders say that actually, Butler was fed up with being

treated like a second class citizen. It seems Osbourne and his wife/manager

Sharon stay at the best hotels while the band has to put up with less lavish

digs, a la Holiday Inns. We hear Butler couldn't take the bad hotels, and told

Ozzy that he was out of there, leaving the Wizard of Ozz in the lurch. That was

until Ozzy remembered his old bassist, Mike Inez. For his part, Inez was ripe

for going on tour. Alice In Chains has had plenty of trouble on the touring

front. The last time the band planned to tour was with Metallica back in 1994,

but they aborted the plans before they ever signed the contracts. And then they

didn't show up at Woodstock II like they promised. Worse, before that they

self-destructed in mid-tour, somewhere in the southwest, when they were on the

road with Masters Of Reality. At least with Ozzy, Inez will actually get to

play to a live audience. According to a spokesman for Inez, this is just a

"temporary thing." And Inez has "absolutely not" rejoined Ozzy's band. "Sean

Kinney and Jerry Cantrell are on an international promo tour [promoting the

Alice album], so they're out of the country until the end of February, so it's

the perfect time for Mike to do this. As for Mike, he's very much the rock and

roll type of dude. He loves going on the road, so we weren't surprised at all."

When questioned about Alice In Chains touring plans, our spokesperson obliquely

said, "some bands are just better where they are." You mean at home? "Well I

hate to say that they're never going to tour, but yes, Alice In Chain is better

off staying in Seattle."