He had performed just two weeks ago at what was billed as Black Sabbath’s last concert, a festival titled “Back to the Beginning,” in his and the band’s hometown of Birmingham, England, that amounted to a massive tribute to the legendary band, including from such legendary spiritual offspring as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Alice in Chains and more.
I was a big fan of the "Osbournes" reality show, much (or all) of which is available on YouTube, here. Ozzy was a wonderful character. A highlights reel:
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Seems he's had lots of on-going health problems since he broke his neck in an accident 20 years ago. But he it made to 76, pretty good for a boomer R&R'er.
What language is that?
Rip, Ozzie
John Henry
yikes - at around the 4:09 spot - I think some of that death started to kick in.
on that second video - that's just elder abuse. The people selling over-tech - are all leaches.
I had hard time understanding a single word he said while talking but his enunciation when singing was amongst the very best in that genre of music.
"...including from such legendary spiritual offspring as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Alice in Chains and more."
I have never in my life heard Tool and Alice in Chains referred to as Black Sabbath "spiritual offspring". I've never heard Maynard even mention Black Sabbath, or Staley for that matter. RIP, but weird.
Rock and roll in general and Ozzie Osborne in particular seem to have a bad boy image. I would have expected him to have been married multiple times.
He was, if you count two as multiple. But he was married to Sharon since 1982, 43 years. I am impressed. And warmed.
John Henry
"If you're not familiar with the name Randy Rhoads, chances are you've still heard him play. As Kory Grow of Rolling Stone tells us, the musician was the virtuoso guitar player who shredded on Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo records, and a major part why the Ozzman managed to pick himself up from the slump he'd been in after getting fired from Black Sabbath in 1979. Unfortunately, the pair's creative relationship didn' t last long. In 1982, Rhoads' life ended in an almost unfathomably dramatic way in a fiery plane crash. As of 2018, the incident was still haunting Osbourne: "To this day, as I'm talking to you now, I'm back in that field looking at this f***ing plane wreck and a house on fire," he says. "You never get over something like that. You're in shock."
Read More: https://www.grunge.com/195505/the-tragic-story-of-randy-rhoads-death/
Randy Rhodes guitar work on Crazy Train - some of the best in hard-pop-rock - Imo
Hunter learned F word from watching Ozzie?
Yancey Ward said...
I had hard time understanding a single word he said while talking but his enunciation when singing was amongst the very best in that genre of music.
One of the things I learned in a special ed class was that singing and speaking speech are completely different. Also an impediment in one language is not necessarily present in another.
Mel Tillis made his (real) stuttering speech his brand. He could hardly string 3 words together but could always sing flawlessly.
Nevil Shute had a lifelong stutter in English but could speak French fluently without a stutter.
John Henry
...i loved the show, too. sorry to hear...
Damn. I was a pretty big fan back in the day.
As if I needed another reminder of the evanescence of youth and the inevitable approach of Eternity...
Ozzy eating a strawberry sorbet with an overhanded spoon was just precious, wasn't it?
Osbourne and the other members of Black Sabbath may not have been masters of spoken English, bout deyar fookin Edmund fookin Spencer compared to the the population of Birmingham today who can't say fookin shit widoot fookin allahu akbar init.
What lesson does the demise of Ozzy Osbourne at the not-quite-ripe old age of 76 have to teach us? Perhaps we should aside all pretense of irrepressible youth at some point in our lives. By age 35 at the outside, we should start thinking and speaking like adults, wearing shirts with buttons and without silkscreened graphics, shoes with sensible heels, and no dark glasses indoors after sundown.
I've never heard Maynard even mention Black Sabbath...
I've been listening to Tool for more than 30 years. They've cited Black Sabbath as one of their more influential bands from the start.
I don't think I've ever heard his music, but The Osbournes television show seemed so ... family oriented. I enjoyed it. I understand he ate a bat once, but he just puttered around the garden. Contrasted with the Baldwins' family show, it was downright wholesome. Odd how both men have/had the same shuffling gait.
I can just see them now, Quaester, Edmund Spencer and Ozzy Osbourne sitting on a bench together in whatsit, comparing notes on the downfall of Birmingham.
Ozzy's performance of Mr. Crowley with Randy Rhoads on lead guitar is awesome.
RIP, Blizzard of OZ!
Nice that he got back to Birmingham one last time.
I hope he got to see an advance screening of Spinal Tap 2, the mockumentary send-up that couldn't have been made without his contribution to that sonic genre.
"By age 35 at the outside, we should start thinking and speaking like adults, wearing shirts with buttons and without silkscreened graphics, shoes with sensible heels, and no dark glasses indoors after sundown."
The only sensible thing I've seen on the Internet all day.
Jim at said, "I've been listening to Tool for more than 30 years. They've cited Black Sabbath as one of their more influential bands from the start."
Welp I completely missed that. I only ever heard Maynard talk about King Crimson's inspiration and a few others. I learned something new today, I'll have to find that.
I loved that show!! RIP Ozzy. Quite the character...
Who among us had Ozzy still alive in '25 on their Black Sabbath bingo card?
Yep… at the age of 76, but really 103 in Ozzie Years.
Had a work colleague who drove others (tight asses!) nearly mad when they’d walk by his office and his Mac laptop would howl with the beginning (cough) of “Sweet Leaf”) when a new email came in) or the end of Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” (I got blisters on my fingers!) when an email was sent. Good fun!
Free at Last
“The worst of the counterculture on a plastic platter--bullshit necromancy, drug-impaired reaction time, long solos, everything. They claim to oppose war, but if I don't believe in loving my enemies I don't believe in loving my allies either, and I've been worried something like this was going to happen since the first time I saw a numerology column in an underground newspaper. C-“
—— Robert “Major Wanker” Christgau capsule review of Black Sabbath’s eponymous first album
“Teachers and critics all dance the Poot”
1999 Sabbath and Pantera. 3rd row. I would have preferred the 70s Sabbath version, but all good.
RIP
A great career, a great performer, he came as close to actually dying on stage as he could. Bravo, sir.
RIP, Ozzy. What a guy, what a pro.
Here's a tribute from a neighbor and a friend. Great for those who want to get to the heart of the lyrics.
Pat Boone - Crazy Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl7rkIc9b24&ab_channel=PatBoone-Topic
I guess they were right about billing it as their last concert.
RIP Ozzy. Saw the Sabs in '74 and '13. That '74 gig was one of life's great ones.
Man I hope i can go out that well.
An under-appreciated entry in Ozzy Osbourne's body of work is the series Ozzy & Jack's World Detour. It is a unironic a love letter to the American heartland as can be imagined, and is all the more amazing coming from this crew. It's funny, and father & kids seem to be having a hell of a time throughout. Needless to say, everyone they meet along the way is just thrilled to have Ozzie Osbourne walk among them! Rest in Peace, Ozzie!
Link to series description.
Ozzy was naturally pro-American - until the corrupt evil left got to him
One of the legends.
Bill The Cat must be devastated.
Remember when Ozzy made George Bush look likable? (Also, that was a hell of an applause at the WH correspondence dinner.)
https://youtu.be/5done2uQ5mA?si=qDTRCcIpeIfvaUWm&t=92
Ozzy Osbourne has replaced the Coldplay Cheaters all over my Facebook feed. RIP, Ozzy!
And that's why you shouldn't smoke, drink, do drugs or bite the heads of bats off.
I understand he ate a bat once,
Story I heard was that he thought it was either fake or dead, depending on who's telling it. Unfortunately it was better. I know that if I were he, I would wake every morning feeling that CRRRRUNCH.
[shudder]
Of course, if I were he, I would no longer be waking at all.
Aaargh! Unfortunately it was NEITHER.
I think it was a dove.
For years I thought it was “Gravy Train.”
"Tina Trent said...
I don't think I've ever heard his music..."
That's like saying "I've never heard the Beatles", or "I've never drank coca cola", or "I've never eaten a Big Mac"! Really? Please, for the love of God, listen to Black Sabbath!
I saw Ozzy perform in Madison in ‘74. I was 13 and was really into Black Sabbath. The show was actually terrible. They were over a hour late. Ozzy came onstage and slurred into the mic “ where fuck are we?” They played for all of about 45 min and then the lights came up. I still recall watching from stage left as someone hurled an empty square of Jack at the stage from the back of the floor. The square bottle flew over the crowd and scored a direct hit at the face of Bill Ward’s bass drum and bounced off. If I had access to the Cap Times archive, I’d look for Dave Wagner’s review the concert date was Feb 10, 1974.
RIP Ozzy!
@creepydotorg
Ozzy Osbourne decided to stop using acid while recording Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4. He said “I took 10 tabs of acid then went for a walk in a field. I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour. In the end, the horse turned round and told me to fuck off. That was it for me.”
Knowing next to nothing about him, I decided to look him up on Wikipedia to learn that Ozzy wasn't his real first name which came as a little bit of a letdown.
Crazy Train was Chipper Jones’s walk music.
Whoops. Walk up music.
Okay, I've added another rule to follow from here on out. Never bite of the head of a live bat. Haven't decided whether I should extend that rule to dead bats.
Overall I think I'm better off never having paid any attention to this Ozzy guy.
"donald said...
Crazy Train was Chipper Jones’s walk music."
Also what the Patriots played when they took the field at Gillette.
Only watched the TV show occasionally, but as a spindly pre-teen in the early 70s I spent hours zoning out to Black Sabbath on the headphones. Rest in peace, Oz-man...
Some days, the bat bites you.
“ In the end, the horse turned round and told me to fuck off.”
Sort of a corollary to Thatcher’s “you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
RR
JSM
The other day I saw a home video of his family watching the concert on TV. The most touching thing was his little toddler grandson holding on to the coffee table, jumping up and down, and yelling "grandpa, grandpa, grandpa". Extra poignant now.
76 is like 150 in rock star years.
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