You can’t help being shocked, even despite its inevitability. Ozzy, it seemed, had found a way to cheat death from taking him via drink and drugs, even before his accidents and various conditions in later life. But in the end, he lived to a pretty average age, the same as a man who hadn’t lived a wild life. It makes you wonder how bad it really all is?
When I was 14 or 15 in the mid-70s, Sabbath were an older brother band. Not that my actual older brother particularly liked them, but somehow they were for slightly older people. So I was 18 before I got a copy of Greatest Hits, and I was surprised to find a much more nuanced band that played melodic acoustic numbers too.
All the black magic stuff was always viewed as Carry On Heavy Metal, in the UK, I think. (meaning a silly comedy film type thing) No one took it seriously in any way, least of all the band, and I think we all were a bit amazed that some of America took it more seriously, as if they were opening a portal to hell. Did Ozzy get a bit lost in all that madness, despite working with some great musicians? Randy Rhoads amazed us all, I think. His style of playing was nothing like we’d ever heard. I’ve described it in the past as playing rhythm and lead at the same time.
It might be more commonplace now, but it wasn’t then, and unlike most, it didn’t seem rooted in the blues at all. Ozzy’s voice never had the psychosexual scream of a Plant or Daltrey, in fact, I knew people who said he couldn’t really sing and only liked Sabbath after Dio joined. But that seems to miss the point. His voice worked perfectly in the context he worked in. And his harmonies with himself were often positively Beatlesque, showing how good his ear was. And the music was often more complex and creative than it was sometimes given credit for. Not just loud, ear-battering heavy metal.
And what adults used to not grasp about Sabbath was how they released the angst in the teenage soul. The stress, the unfairness, the directionlessness could all be released with an Ozzy “oh Lord, yeah” on War Pigs or more prosaically “you bastards!” on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. That went deep with us at an influential age.
Even as age and ill-health took its toll, he would sort of shuffle across the stage, slightly stooped, throwing buckets of water and clapping, the very opposite of the lithe, snake-hipped rock singer. Maybe that explains his continued popularity. He was relatable. A working-class kid that made the most of everything he could, who wasn’t born for stardom and, like many others, didn’t really know what to do with the money, adulation and madness fame brought.
It all just happened in a whirl of unhinged insanity, and then it was over.
Ozzy has finally come to the end of side two. But the music will play forever.
The end of side two for Ozzy...
