Ozzy Osbourne loved The Beatles as much as he loved raising hell

In latest years Ozzy Osbourne had to cancel multiple proposed concerts and tours due to a litany of medical issues But he kept trying to get well enough to get back onstage for the sake of his loyal fans That s one of the things I ve been the majority f king pissed off at I never got the chance to say goodbye or thank you the Black Sabbath vocalist-turned-solo-star advised Rolling Stone UK in Because my fans are what it s all about If I can t continue doing shows on a regular basis I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say Hi guys thanks so much for my life he added That s what I m working towards and if I drop down dead at the end of it I ll die a happy man It s eerie reading this quote now because as it turns out that s pretty close to what happened Less than three weeks after headlining a banner farewell show in Birmingham dubbed Back to the Beginning Osbourne died at the age of Related Ozzy changed everything Film examines the tumultuous life legacy of the Prince of Darkness His death was genuinely shocking as he had long lived with Parkinson s disorder but seemed in stable healthcare in fact just days before he died Osbourne appeared at Comic Con Midlands with his family And at Back to the Beginning an epic day celebrating Osbourne and Black Sabbath that drew a who s-who of heavy music including Guns n Roses Metallica Slayer and Tool he was in an animated mood and in fine vocal form The sheer number of artists who flew to Birmingham specifically for the show illustrated his incredible legacy and influence and the respect he commanded from the heavy music universe Heavy metal might have eventually come to exist without Ozzy but it would ve looked and sounded very different Osbourne was the Thomas Edison of rock n roll a tireless sonic inventor who influenced the genre s advance across multiple offshoots The mainstream hard rockers and hair bands of the s certainly wouldn t exist without Osbourne but neither would more niche offshoots like stoner rock thrash metal death metal and doom metal He helped create a blueprint for heavy music that was thoughtful and immersive as well as aggressive Heavy metal might have eventually come to exist without Ozzy but it would ve looked and sounded very different In the s Black Sabbath prioritized gouging grooves thrumming basslines and ponderous drums they treated their albums like cohesive sonic statements At the helm was Osbourne who channeled the darker forces within this music with hypnotic wild-child abandon as if he were possessed by the hellfire spirit And musically Black Sabbath was genuinely terrifying The ponderous song Black Sabbath which opened the band s self-titled debut LP felt like it was barely escaping the fires of hell between the ominous tolling bells and spacious arrangements that exuded dread Paranoid the band s second LP of was even better a deliberately disorienting slab of viscous proto-punk the title track and roaring stoner rock sludge Iron Man Yet the band continually refined its approach On their album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath the synth-heavy Who Are You incorporated elements of prog and space rock while the title track was a punchier take on their sprawling epics Despite these obvious innovations critics were not fans I don t think we ever had a good review Osbourne described The Guardian earlier this year Maybe that was a catalyst in a way every critic didn t like us so more of the people liked us We were a people s band four guys from Aston one of the poorest parts of Birmingham Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Lesson That upbringing made him an inclusionary presence as well as someone who never feared going against the grain For starters Osbourne s voice was distinctive He lacked the abrasiveness or gruffness identified in a multitude of metal singers opting instead for a theatrical melodic yowl with silvery overtones On Black Sabbath s LP Sabotage his voice even possessed a soulful tone Credit for this no doubt goes at least partly to his unabashed life-long love of The Beatles I absolutely worshiped The Beatles he narrated Rolling Stone in Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols once commented to me I hated The Beatles To me that s like saying you hate air In he even honored his heroes with a reverent version of In My Life On Black Sabbath s LP Sabotage his voice even possessed a soulful tone Credit for this no doubt goes at least partly to his unabashed life-long love of The Beatles Tom Morello also once described Osbourne s voice as the sound of the no-hope working class driving a stake through the heart of the flower power generation That potent yearning never fully dissipated Osbourne constantly sounded like a seeker something constantly in search of meaning This became even more prominent when he launched a solo career after parting techniques with Black Sabbath in His first two solo albums s Blizzard of Ozz and s Diary Of a Madman harnessed his untamed persona into classic singles Crazy Train Mr Crowley and Flying High Again While no less ominous than his work with Black Sabbath they possessed a commercial edge that led to mainstream success Prior to Osbourne s solo success hard rock and metal artists typically stuck together in bands But Ozzy created a blueprint for a solo heavy metal rockstar proving that you could carry this music on your own if you had a solid band around you And Osbourne invariably flourished when he had a guitarist foil first Randy Rhoads and later players such as Jake E Lee and Zakk Wylde Their virtuosic playing challenged Ozzy to amplify his stage presence Kevork Djansezian Getty Images Ozzy Osbourne performs during half-time of the NFL championship between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium on September in Inglewood California But for all of Osbourne s consistency he was never afraid to try new things and he never discounted hard rock s multiple evolutions That was certainly evident with Ozzfest his metal music festival that inevitably made room for up-and-coming artists as well as legends The production and sonics on his solo albums evolved gently with the times As hard rock and heavy metal gained a mainstream foothold in America thanks to MTV Osbourne leaned into poppier metal sounds on s Bark at the Moon and s Shot In The Dark By the early s when metal excess was at its peak he emerged with the spiritual power ballad Mama I m Coming Home and the slick No More Tears the latter kicking off with cavernous synthesizers In the subsequent decades he continued notching mainstream radio hits embracing contemporary rock s approach with I Don t Wanna Stop or the Jeff Beck collaboration Case No Collaboration-wise he was also open to things that on paper might seem unorthodox In he contributed electroplated speak-sing vocals to the synthfunk jam Shake Your Head Let s Go To Bed by Was Not Was How did Osbourne end up on the track I was lamenting the fact that we didn t have anybody to sing to our attorney who we were meeting with he communicated me in And he commented Well you know Ozzy Osborne s in town I represent him He d be up for this At the height of nu-metal Osbourne teamed up with Coal Chamber for an ominous cover of Peter Gabriel s Shock the Monkey And in he had one of the biggest hits of his entire career when he contributed a vocal hook on rapper Post Malone s moody top single Take What You Want The following year the pair reunited on Osbourne s album Ordinary Man for the throttling Black Sabbath-esque throwback It s A Raid a paranoia-soaked true story of police showing up after Ozzy accidentally called them while in a drug-induced state In the hands of other artists these side quests might sound self-conscious or embarrassing But Osbourne was dependably himself He wouldn t and really couldn t camouflage his voice for the sake of a collaboration Instead he sensed how he could work with these artists to create something new Just a scarce weeks ago at the Back to the Beginning concert Osbourne relished what he had achieved in his decades-long career As the sweeping O Fortuna movement of Carl Orff s Carmina Burana thundered over the loudspeakers he rose from underneath the stage while sitting on a badass none-more-black throne decorated with skulls and a gigantic bat Let the madness begin he exclaimed That led into a five-song solo set that kicked off with I Don t Know appropriately enough the first song on his debut solo album Blizzard of Ozz and then segued right into the eerie sinister Mr Crowley The nightcap was a Black Sabbath reunion featuring guitarist Tony Iommi bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward The quartet had started playing as Black Sabbath in the late s this night marked their first appearance together in years And they delivered with a seething set full of menace and vigor The significance of these childhood friends coming back home and coming back home together made their set downright poignant One of the proudest things I have in my heart is the fact that Black Sabbath wasn t a band that was created by several big buff mogul guy Osbourne recounted the BBC in It was four guys who reported Let s have a go we have a dream And it came true beyond our wildest expectations In the end Osbourne was never afraid to be vulnerable Despite his well-publicized outrageous behaviors and drug addictions The Prince of Darkness unfailingly had a tender heart and a soft side The cathartic yowl at the start of his debut solo single Crazy Train was telling All aboooooardd Osbourne invited everyone into his dark lair and was grateful to his very last day for the society Read more about Ozzy Osbourne How The Osbournes derailed reality Ozzy Osbourne blasts Kanye West for using his song He is an antisemite Ozzy Osbourne opens up about suffering from miserable Parkinson s condition The post Ozzy Osbourne loved The Beatles as much as he loved raising hell appeared first on Salon com