OZZY OSBOURNE & BLACK SABBATH
We recall Ozzie Osbourne’s impact on a stunned rock world during his craziest days on the road to stardom.
John ‘Ozzie’ Osbourne’s sad death aged 76 (July 22nd, 2025) only weeks after his farewell appearance with Black Sabbath at Birmingham’s Aston Villa stadium (July 5th) has brought back a multitude of black magical memories for fans of the legendary singing superstar.
They include those rock journalists (like myself) who had the fun and pleasure of interviewing Ozzie during the days when he was enjoying even more success with his own bands in the 1980s post-Sabbath era. We also recall our initial reaction to his wild performances alongside fellow Sabbatarians Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward at the birth of the satanic Seventies. Was it fear or was it laughter? Read on!
‘OH THE PAIN…’ Life’s rich tattoo.
When Black Sabbath with Ozzie at the helm first came to town they wrought shock and awe in their wake. We’d heard thunderous bands before, from Blue Cheer to Led Zeppelin. But they were naught but weaklings compared to the sheer power unleashed by the boys from Birmingham when they launched into War Pigs, Paranoid and their menacing theme tune Black Sabbath.
We London fairies shook in our boots as we beheld tolling bells, chiming guitars and the Prince of Darkness himself howling ‘What is this stands before me?’ What indeed. We’d ain’t seen or heard nothing like it when Ozzie Osbourne and Tony Iommi first strode across the stage at the Royal Albert Hall one dark night in April 1971, summoning the evil spirits of rock’n’roll that played havoc with our comfortable mind sets.
To say it was a scary experience is to make a rat salad of our emotions. Indeed I fled for the exits, convinced the wizards were coming to prepare all rock critics for an electric funeral. Remember, Bob Dylan shocked fans at the same venue, just by daring to use electric guitars and drums to back his musical prophesy. Those of us still coming to grips with Joni Mitchell singing ‘Blue, songs are like tattoos’ were not expecting a bloke to turn up actually covered in tattoos and shouting ‘Oh no! from the rooftops.
Yes, it took a while to recover from the birth pangs of heavy metal. But who couldn’t be impressed by the strangely magnetic appeal of their beloved lead singer? It was only when I met Ozzie that I realised he took it all quite seriously – but only to a point. He was the ultimate showman, a great singer and raconteur. Nearly all our early meetings seemed to take place in darkened rooms or spooky places. Maybe his wife and manager Sharon hadn’t paid the electricity bills.
The famous husband and wife team certainly had it tough in those crucial days when Ozzie left Sabbath to be replaced by Ronnie James Dio in 1978. When it was revealed he was going to launch a solo career in the States in 1981 with his own band, the news was greeted with disbelief by those all important American tour promoters.
Sharon told me: “So many of the promoters said we were crazy and that Ozzy without Sabbath wouldn’t work. But at our first show in New York the tickets sold out in a day.”
Controversy surrounded his entire future career, especially when blood was depicted dripping from Ozzy’s jaws on his Talk Of The Devil album cover that led to him being banned from dozens of U.S. towns. But Sharon assured me: “It was just sauce spooned from a pot when the road crew were having a turkey dinner back stage – with cranberry sauce!”
YOU RANG?
When success came, the couple moved up in the world from the cramped London flat where we usually met for interviews, to a gated residence in the country. I was impressed if somewhat startled one dark and rainy night when a butler answered the front door bell and said ‘You rang?’ It wasn’t Geezer Butler; it was a tall man in a black suit with glowering eyes who Ozzy explained was Lurch, on loan from the Addams Family.
As the master of the house sat in the lounge, surrounded by shelves of videos dedicated to World War 11 history, he dismissed the idea of ever becoming an English country gentleman and hinted he’d like to go roaming around China and live in a tent like a gypsy. Instead he and Sharon relocated to America where I next met him in Los Angeles in 1988. He was preparing for another tour with his band featuring Zakk Wylde on guitar. Heavy metal was now a vital part of the rock biz and I was in LA checking out bands like W.A.S.P and Megadeth, all ultimately inspired by Black Sabbath.
By now Ozzy was aged 39 and already complaining he was worn out and couldn’t see himself still rocking when he reached his fifties. Sharon took drastic action. She packed him off to the one section of the Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood that didn’t have a bar. The gymnasium. We all had to get up at 7.30 a.m. to attend a session at the well equipped gym where the star was expected to undergo the full treatment and get himself fighting fit for showtime.
When I found Ozzy, he was clad in a track suit doing push ups, exercising with machines and contorting his body into unnatural postures. The treatment was so severe he began panting, gasping and groaning in agony.
“It sounds like I’m torturing you,” said the highly alarmed, six foot tall blond PE instructor, who had clearly never smoked a cigarette in his life. “Well at least your heart rate isn’t speeding up so fast now.”
“What heart?” said Ozzy. Later we found a more comfortable position, beside the hotel pool with drinks on the table. “Yes folks, I do exercise,” he confessed.”On tour I started jogging because I’m not getting any younger. I also do 160 sit ups a session and feel much better.
SMASHED
“At least I’m doing something rather than lying on a sun bed, looking at the sky and stinking like an old cocoanut. But I’d sooner be smashed in the bar having a fight with the fucking bar man, dodging beer bottles. It’s a bit more lively. I mean, it keeps you on your toes”.
Ozzy made me laugh so much I suggested he should have his own TV chat show when he packed in being the Prince of Darkness. Except it might be a dodgy sort of show. But seriously wouldn’t he prefer sunbathing in California in his retirement years?
“The only day I went sunbathing here, two birds shat on my head within half an hour. Dump. Right on my chest. I thought, this is a message. The only two birds in California and they beamed in on me. That must be worth an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The only man shat on twice in thirty minutes. It’s a good job ostriches can’t fly.”
Although Ozzy tried hard to be a reformed character and did get his TV show one day, sadly he didn’t always stick with the healthy exercise routine. He confessed he lapsed one night, ending up blind drunk in a tattoo parlour at 2 a.m. on Sunset Boulevard.
“The guy thought I was crazy turning up wrecked and said ‘No, we’re closed.’ I just said: ‘Come on, get that fucking needle out.’ “I woke up next morning and found I had the word ‘Thanks’ tattooed on one hand. Good job it wasn’t on my forehead. The wife went crazy and said ‘I’m frightened to leave you now. You’ll come home with a bald head and an eye tattooed in the middle of your forehead!’
“Well at least I have some fun, even when everyone wants to sue me, kill me, hang me or ban me. Sharon says I just have to calm down, but that’s boring.”
John Michael Osbourne and his old pals in Black Sabbath were never boring. Ozzy assured me he was going to have ‘Have a nice day’ tattooed on his face. Well that would have kept the world a safer place for the crazy Prince of Darkness.