Thank You, Ozzy

Goodbye, Prince of Darkness

Ozzy Osbourne, The Prince of Darkness, has left us.
What was obviously going to happen at some point was still a shock, because somehow Ozzy seemed immortal.
Neither the drugs nor the alcohol could take him down or hinder him from building a legacy which finds no equal. He was one of the last heroes of rock music.

For me, he was one of my first introductions into rock music. He was one of those larger-than-life figures who started fascinating me once I started exploring different music genres.
It took me maybe half a minute to turn off his music at my first listen. As someone who so far was only familiar with pop music, it was too heavy. And yet I stayed listening.

Not immediately, but again and again, I found myself returning to his music. And with that, I started listening to other rock acts as well. And before I realized it, I was into it.
Thanks Ozzy, that’s your credit.

And while I was fascinated by a dozen genres, it was rock music that truly always captured me, besides pop.
I remember slowly (believe me, SLOWLY) throwing myself into the world of Black Sabbath, Van Halen, or Led Zeppelin.
What started as a cautious listen turned into an unstoppable search for more.
Suddenly, I found myself in the decades of rock music, going back to the early times of the ’50s. The fascination and the urge to further explore the depths of the genre began all there. And till today, it has been a huge chapter of my life. Through all kinds of emotions, lonely moments, depressed nights, and creative stagnations.

Rock music has been there.

And with it, Ozzy. Either through listening to Black Sabbath or his solo music. Somehow, this once-so-frightening guy found himself in my rotation again. And the images making him so frightening turned into images I was fascinated by.
The art behind each album, each performance and the incredible amount of talent, raw emotion poured into it. And the unlikely success story of a young man from Birmingham who faced so many obstacles.

Now, enough people have gone into detail about Ozzy’s life. Nevertheless, I want to talk a about Ozzy Osbourne's life as well.

Born in 1948 in Birmingham, his life was difficult since the beginning. Amidst the economic struggles of post-war Britain, his family suffered under poverty. And not just that, Ozzy also had personal problems. He suffered from dyslexia and had ADHD. On top of that, he was repeatedly sexually abused by two boys when he was just 11 years old. The struggles of his childhood and early youth left, understandably, huge marks on him. Unsurprisingly, there was only one thing helping him through this time: music.
And most of all, The Beatles. Not surprising considering their relatively similar age and background - Ozzy could relate to them.

And so the dream of becoming a musician slowly shaped itself. And soon he would find himself in Black Sabbath and everything was perfect. Wait, actually no.
Like everything in Ozzy's life, finding the right band and starting to make music turned out to be quite difficult. After his father bought him a PA system for a lot of money, Ozzy started playing with a band called Music Machine. No disrespect, but that name is whack - and maybe full disrespect, because apparently they didn’t even know how to play their instruments. So it wouldn’t be long till Ozzy was fed up with that.
But then he met Terence Butler, alias Geezer. And with him, the opportunity to become the singer of his band Rare Breed. And turns out this also wasn’t it.
But then - and honestly, that story has more turnarounds than anything else - he would finally get his opportunity.

Cause months later, his former classmate Bill and the popular guy Tony would stand in front of his door. Both saw an advertisement by Ozzy in a local music shop, and ironically, it maybe was this moment which was pivotal to each's future. Cause Tony despised Ozzy, and was ready to turn around and leave. But despite that, they somehow pulled together. It's crazy to think that if he had turned around, there might have been no Black Sabbath today.
Anyways, with the addition of Geezer, they would found... The Polka Tulk Blues Band. Yes, you heard it right!
After a few gigs, they would rename themselves Earth, a name Ozzy hated.
To add to the chaos, Tony Iommi left the band to join Jethro Tull, before returning shortly after to rejoin his old bandmates.
You might now expect them to go through a few more name changes, but gladly no. Instead, the guys found themselves in a rehearsing room, and across the street was a cinema. And in front of that cinema was a long line waiting to see the 1963 Italian horror film Black Sabbath. And the band members wondered how strange it is that people pay to scare themselves. One thing led to another, and the band found a concept to follow. A song called Black Sabbath was followed by the whole band being named it.

What followed should be well known to everyone. In 1970, their self-titled album came out and immediately was a success. It went straight to Number 8 in the UK Charts.
In the same year, they released Paranoid, and after Paranoid came Master of Reality. But with Vol. 4 in 1972, first problems started to emerge. The band found themselves not only in the success but also a lot of drugs.
In late 1977, Ozzy would leave the band temporarily to pursue a solo project. Then he returned for the record Never Say Die. But at this point, the whole situation started to become chaotic.
Eventually, Ozzy was kicked out of the band due to his extreme drug use and unreliability. Ozzy later would deny that and state creative differences for the split.

Either way, the breakup threw Ozzy back to his lowest. So much so that he locked himself in a hotel room, surrounded by drugs and alcohol. The situation Ozzy found himself in was possibly the hardest in his life. He was ready to die and become a rockstar we might barely mention today.
Fortunately for him and for all of us, one person wasn't ready to give him up so fast: Sharon Arden.
She was the daughter of Black Sabbath's manager, Don Arden, and most people will know her today as Sharon Osbourne. Sharon not only wasn’t ready to give Ozzy up, but she was convinced that his music career wasn’t yet finished. She became the driving force in making Ozzy ready for a comeback the world wasn’t expecting.
Thanks to Sharon, Ozzy got structure into his creative mind and talent. She shaped his image and career with an iron will. Adding the back-then unknown Randy Rhoads - a young, talented guitarist - and the setup was perfect.
Guess what?
Ozzy is back.
When Blizzard of Ozz was released, it was loud and immediately was a statement that Ozzy was still as relevant as ever.

And is it a surprise when the album consists of songs like Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley, or Goodbye to Romance?
He would follow up with another masterpiece, Diary of a Madman, and that one with Bark at the Moon. The latter might have never happened, because in between the two albums, Ozzy was hit by another tragic event.
On March 19, 1982, Ozzy and Sharon, as well as his band, were staying in Leesburg, Florida. On that day, Ozzy and Sharon were asleep in the tour bus, which was parked outside of a mansion. Suddenly, they were awakened by a massive explosion. Once they rushed out to see what happened, they saw a plane sticking out of the house.
The surreal scene was a tragic catastrophe - because in the plane were 25-year-old Randy Rhoads, who, as I mentioned, played a huge part in Ozzy's comeback - as well as 58-year-old Rachel Youngblood and 36-year-old Andrew Aycock. The latter was the bus driver and took the plane from a nearby airfield without permission. He invited Rhoads and Youngblood to join him on a flight.
But then he decided it would be fun to make several low passes over the tour bus in order to wake up the other tour members. When he attempted a third pass, it went tragically wrong. The plane’s wings clipped the bus, causing the lightweight plane to lose control before crashing into the nearby house. Everyone inside died immediately and the rest of the band nearly did too.
The death of Randy Rhoads, who was not only pivotal in Ozzy’s comeback but also a close friend, was devastating to Ozzy.

Randy Rhoads (r) performing with Ozzy Osbourne (r)

The loss of him would never leave him. And so Ozzy once again threw himself into drugs and alcohol. Eventually, he would manage to break the spiral and continue working on his music. He would go on and release two more glam-metal-inspired albums.
And then he would meet Jeffrey Wielandt, who most probably know as Zakk Wylde. With him, he would record No More Tears - one of, if not Ozzy's most successful albums. What followed was another tour, as well as a short reunion with Black Sabbath.
But after Ozzy was refused by Lollapalooza, Sharon had another career-defining idea: Ozzfest. And what an idea it was. Not only was it held almost annually for 20 years, but it also played a huge role in giving bands like System of a Down or Korn a platform to turn into global stars. While writing this post, I went through the lineups of each year and wow, are they amazing.
Then, in the early 2000s, Ozzy would turn into a TV celebrity with the show The Osbournes. If I'm not mistaken, it was largely the first of its kind. It quickly became MTV's most-watched show in history. Whether you liked the show or not, it made him undeniably more likeable to mainstream audiences and played a huge role in shaping his global image - for better or worse.

In the following years, it would become more quieter around Ozzy. He would go on to perform a last world tour in 2018, called No More Tours II.
Although in 2023, he announced that the European leg of No More Tours II would be cancelled after almost two years of being postponed. Around that time, Ozzy would also feature on Post Malone's Take What You Want, which eventually became his first US Top 10 single in 30 years.
But also his own solo music didn’t stand still. In 2020, he released his first studio album in almost 10 years, Ordinary Man. Two years later, he would follow with his last album, Patient Number 9.
But unfortunately, his health problems only became worse. Not only did Ozzy have to deal with multiple spine surgeries, but he also suffered from Parkinson’s. After a fall in his house in 2022, his injuries got worse. In early 2025, he stated that he had lost the ability to walk.
But even the pain and the struggles didn’t stop him from performing one last concert on July 5, at Villa Park in Birmingham.

Called Back To The Beginning, it was a reference to where the band was once formed. Ozzy insisted on staging the performance there to "give back to the place where I was born". Due to his advanced Parkinson’s disease, he was seated on a throne.
And what a show it was. Ozzy, despite fighting with so many obstacles, was as good as always. Not only did he perform one last time in front of his fans, but it was also a benefit concert, raising a total of 140 million, which will be donated to Acorns Children's Hospice, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Cure Parkinson’s.
A last time giving back, as well as receiving, as Ozzy was visibly moved by the crowd’s support.

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Oh well, here we are. This was the incredible story of Ozzy Osbourne. What a man, what a life, what incredibly good music.
On one side, his death still shocks me and makes me sad. But on the other side, writing this post has made me revisit so many good songs and videos that I truly believe his legacy is untouchable. The human might be gone, but the memories are still there.
As I said in the beginning, Ozzy was one of my early introductions to rock music. He was one of the pioneers of the genre and the Godfather of metal.
And he won’t be forgotten, because his music will keep being played everywhere, including on my speakers.
Thank you, Ozzy. Thank you for the memories, the music, and for opening a world to me which I’ve never left since then.
Rock ’n’ Roll.

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