RIP Ozzy Osbourne

passed away a few weeks after the black sabbath farewell concert
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/22/ozzy-osbourne-black-sabbath-frontman-and-icon-of-british-heavy-metal-dies-aged-76

a titan, no two ways about it

Incredible how many second acts the guy had.

76 is young but it feels like 100 in Ozzy years

yeah i would've thought he was at least 5 years older

Let this be a lesson kids, don't bite the head off of a bat.

Phew.

it's funny, over the past decade i haven't thought much about the antics, just the incredible output

besides his deserved acclaim as the godfather of hard rock, he was really underrated as a creator of melodies

Nothing on this earth ever sounded more forlorn than Ozzy in full flow. Oft copied and never bettered, congrats to the guy for getting to 76 too!

That’s shocking - watching the show I thought he seemed pretty lively and wondered if it would give him a lift. Glad he made it that far.

is he still the only visitor to get thrown out of the Dachau concentration camp for being drunk and disorderly?

besides his deserved acclaim as the godfather of hard rock, he was really underrated as a creator of melodies

I always found it endearing that for all his Prince of Darkness posing he always professed his love for the Beatles.

I had a feeling that the concert was meant as a loving sendoff, didn’t suspect it was for Ozzy though. RIP

Ozzy is one of like 3 people in Decline of Western Civilization Part 2 that comes off as a decent human being and I always love the scene where Penelope Spheeris interviews him making breakfast while he explains the ups and downs of the business.

https://bsky.app/profile/papapishu.bsky.social/post/3lul53u7kps2o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7JD2CqTKS4

This one hurts.

iirc spheeris in the commentary track says ozzy wanted to be filmed in a kitchen so they built a fake kitchen to shoot it in

if I was that good at pouring orange juice I'd demand the same thing

:(

Wow, I wonder to what extent he was holding on for that concert, consciously or unconsciously.

Yeah incredible

I always found it endearing that for all his Prince of Darkness posing he always professed his love for the Beatles.

Lemmy, too.

Ozzy... an absolute titan. I saw him three times — with Sabbath in 2004 and solo in 2007 and 2010. The 2010 gig was the best, he was in genuinely good voice and Gus G was a great lead guitarist, but seeing the original Sabbath lineup was heart-stopping.

guess that's my listening line up sorted for tonight

RIP you wicked wicked fucking god

I saw Ozzy on the Ultimate Sin tour with Jake E. Lee on guitar (and Metallica opening when Cliff was still alive) He went all out with the showmanship.

Being right at the front of Ozfest in Milton Keynes and shouting I FUCKING LOVE YOU to him right in there I will never forget.

Unreal. Passing just after that huge reunion concert is like Blackstar becoming Bowie’s swan song. RIP

I was at the Birmingham show two weeks back and had a random chat with a guy from L.A., who said "it's like i've flown into a really big funeral, but a very happy one" - i guess we couldn't know it would be so soon. So unbelievably grateful to have been there, and thankful - he loved his fans - loved them enough to get up on that stage in pain and do it once more. I guess this doesn't feel so sad; it wasn't entirely unexpected - just a time to celebrate and be thankful for him and for his part in the best fucking band of all time.

This is probably the most titanic loss the genre has experienced in its very young history.

Ozzy was unfairly reduced to a punchline for several decades, and it's largely due to Sharon and reality TV. Like he was a buffoon who lucked into a band.

Nobody else could have sang on his Sabbath records. That husky, foreboding timbre on the s/t, the reedy rock n roll energy of the others. What he lacked in technical gifts he gained tenfold in persona. The guy was an essence.

He was quite literally the kid abused on the playground, who also suffered sexual abuse and other pain as a youth, and he transformed into the man Satanic Panic America feared, while paradoxically being a Christian.

His music dripped with pain, and people often insisted it was self-inflicted, but that's retrofitting later Ozzy onto his old self. No, he wasn't a saint. Even he wouldn't want us laundering his past deeds. He did shitty things in shitty states more times than we can count.

But fucker lived to 76 despite putting his body through the rigors of 50 years of touring, while actively destroying it for a large portion of that. He became the figurehead for a fledgling genre that might have been relegated to mere folly without him legitimizing it in the mainstream.

I'll leave with this

"I say goodbye to romance, yeah
Goodbye to friends, I tell you
Goodbye to all the past
I guess that we'll meet, we'll meet in the end

And the winter's looking fine
And I think the sun will shine again
And I feel I've cleaned my mind
All the past is left behind again"

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kaocai6zt7rg4xi5ksoelsp6/bafkreianjlozelnoxwvjncf54hssc5p2xg5zplx4wytkc5aukkfyi6m2ay@jpeg

Ozzy otm

lol

Oft copied and never bettered

Was he though, I mean, whoever sounded like Ozzy Osbourne?

the pain he was in from the combination of parkinson’s and all his spinal issues (for which he had like eight surgeries?) sounded like an absolute hell. rip

Xpost nobody really sounds like him, per se, but there are tons of doom and stoner bands, like Sleep or The Obsessed, who have vocalists who kinda emulate what he was going for vocally.

But none of them sound like him though. He was like a guy whose vocal cords were encased in a kazoo, and I mean that as a compliment

Plus he sang in an English accent, most of the time!

The dude from Sheavy got closest IMO, but even he has about 1% of Ozzy's charisma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZXXYBdgBhw

yea I've always been fascinated by that, Black Sabbath have got to be one of the most influential bands on the planet, virtually everything metal's ever been spun off into can be traced back to a specific Sabbath track. and yet nobody's really been able to imitate Ozzy well. only thing I can think of that's similar is Magma and Zeuhl, obviously on a much smaller scale

always thought people took the "prince of darkness" thing way too literally sometimes. you're supposed to be scared of the devil. I think Ozzy embodied that better than any of the bands that tried to pick up his mantle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03hGi0_r0xc

always thought people took the "prince of darkness" thing way too literally sometimes. you're supposed to be scared of the devil. I think Ozzy embodied that better than any of the bands that tried to pick up his mantle.

All the Black Sabbath songs that feature the devil are written from the POV of, like, an illiterate medieval peasant absolutely terrified of hell and Satan. They were literally a Christian rock band.

It's why a band like Trouble is more of an understandable descendent than lots of others out there.

the reference point for black sabbath was a hammer horror version of satanism, something the US was never that familiar with

Xpost nobody really sounds like him, per se, but there are tons of doom and stoner bands, like Sleep or The Obsessed, who have vocalists who kinda emulate what he was going for vocally.

i would never put Cisneros vocals anywhere in the same realm as Ozzy

Ozzy's voice sometimes sounds uncannily like it's double-tracked even when it's not, or when he's singing live (although I'm sure there was a lot of live processing going on with his vocals in the semi-recent years, but still).

when we consider how much he achieved; how he helped create a genre and a thousand sub genres; got to remember this is a working class child from a regional city, with undiagnosed ADHD and dyslexia, later an OCD diagnosis too - basically a school dropout with little or no education or formal musical training. crazy (train).

Well, I'm gonna go chronologically through all the Ozzy solo albums I've never heard, starting with No Rest For The Wicked. He really had a string of crappy album covers, didn't he?

besides his deserved acclaim as the godfather of hard rock, he was really underrated as a creator of melodies

I always found it endearing that for all his Prince of Darkness posing he always professed his love for the Beatles.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 July 2025 19:35 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Was thinking of both these things just before. Is there a good playlist out there for all the pop songs that dot his albums?

Jack Bruce maybe kinda Ozzy's influence, vocally?

RIP \m/

All the Black Sabbath songs that feature the devil are written from the POV of, like, an illiterate medieval peasant absolutely terrified of hell and Satan. They were literally a Christian rock band.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Tuesday, July 22, 2025 9:14 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

a youngster friend of mine, a sleep fan, i played him 'after forever' - he hadn't heard all of master of reality - and afterward he was like "that wasn't satanic at all". right. one of their main modes was 'spiritual but not religious'.

Was thinking of both these things just before. Is there a good playlist out there for all the pop songs that dot his albums?

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, July 22, 2025 3:23 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

try listening to the first six black sabbath records from front to back?

i'm an ozzy / sabbath dilettante so forgive me for being obvious but i've only recently realized that "crazy train" is literally about ptsd.

expand that to first 8 sabbaths. even 7 and 8 have some great stuff!

13 is really good.

I panned 13 when it came out, but I've since come around. Hearing the new stuff live helped it sink in better.

I liked 13 a lot when it came out, but now years removed from the hype and spectacle of the release, I think it's actually great.

Modern production techniques kinda robbed it a little but it was so much better than the new Sabbath tracks we got in the 90s

Just saw this CNN clip now. They called up Henry Rollins to be a talking head, and he looks old as hell, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c6ne7LaM1g

I mean, he’s in his 60s, that is old.

stfu it's super young. he looks and is very young

when does bob odenkirk star in the older henry rollins movie?

"RIP Ozzy Osbourne, a true American original” - Andrew Yang

From Aston, Texas

Can I just...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ypaOIVmaA

yes, yes you can <3

https://i.imgur.com/NMRCeHv.jpeg

four massively drunk men arrived, in high spirits, accompanied by a collie dog

Loving the idea that Doom Doom from the TV Funhouse cartoon might have been real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8DJ5q7x5mo

I remember reading that when Gary Numan first got to #1 he celebrated by going on holiday to Littlesea Caravan Park in Weymouth. Which isn't quite the same.

Black Sabbath reformed to play Live Aid. One of the comments points out that Ozzy looks to be on the verge of a massive heart attack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxqmEeOU9EI

And yet he survived forty more years, so there is hope for the rest of us.

Ozzy, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone could all easily have died in the 80s.

Or the 70s

or the 60s

Kory Grow’s RS tribute to Ozzy might be my favorite so far.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/ozzy-osbourne-rolling-stone-1235391916/

Non-paywall version
https://archive.ph/M0CBR

Maybe it’s just bc I am a stan but with Ozzy I would much rather read stuff by diehard metalhead people who love him unabashedly like Grow, than more objective ppl who want to talk about his tv stuff or whatever

Also I think what Grow says is v true, that in spite of all his publicized wildness the thing that made his legions of fans stay w him for so long is Ozzy remained so relatable & human & down to earth, open about his failings, and always getting back on the horse when life bucked him off.

Like even when he looked like the most pretentious lord high of heavy metal, he had a ready smile & a joke & a sweet thing to say to a fan

He was a good, weird, egg.

Kory does great work here. I'll also give some shine to this fine remembrance:

https://pitchfork.com/features/ozzy-osbourne-obituary-john-darnielle/

fucking hell - 3pm and absolutely bawling over that final paragraph. Beautful stuff (as expected)

also I have been relistening to No More Tears and “Road To Nowhere” is fucking great. It fits nicely with 2nd-wave glam metal power ballads of the time (kinda Warrant-coded?) …
anyway pvmic: this kinda shit is the air i breathe lol

xpost as Iggy said one time, "that guy can write" !

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/ozzy-osbourne-black-sabbath-obituary/

This was p good on the arc of his life. The good with the bad.

I listened/slept to a chronological playlist of all his Sabbath albums on a flight and it struck me how little time I've ever spent with the later albums. I'd wake up once in a while to a shock of, wait, this is still them!?

went to Judas Priest/Alice Cooper in London last night. tons of the crowd in sabbath/ozzy shirts - Alice covered Paranoid, War Pigs over the p.a. before Priest, then a really nice tribute from Rob Halford during their set, and then Crazy Train over the p.a. once they finished. felt good to be in that space this week, full of people rockin to some HEAVY METAL.

awesome \m/

With Ozzy gone, Rob Halford is officially Metal's Dad.

I have two dads. Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford.

Poor Alice Cooper

THREE DADS

Three Men and Rosemary's Baby

I also have a Weird German Uncle ie Klaus Meine
He’s not blood related but we call him uncle because he’s around alot anyway thats something about me

This was in fun sitting around listening to Ozzy this evening. I modeled it after Johnny Mathis for a Ktel collection.

https://imgur.com/a/FLGZkpN

https://imgur.com/a/FLGZkpN

If it’s a nice price of $9.99 consider me SOLD

i’m not super nostalgic for The Osbournes really at all but I fucking love this clip of him rediscovering his Sabbath ARP 2699 synth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWAzKaqJzj4

*2600 arg stupid fingers tiny phone keyboard

this clip is edited, less dumb bullshit to fastforward thru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O855kBY3mcs

Enjoying the misheard Ozzyisms lately.

On the 1975 Asbury Sabbath bootleg, he introduces "Hole in the Sky" so mushed-mouthed it sounds like he said "Homeless Man".

And on No Rest for the Wicked's "Devil's Daughter", Ozzy appears to be singing "Breakdown and cry, devil's donut, I'm watching you"

The Bringer of Light, Ozzy in a Lennon mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCCiwPEdEpg

Ozzasis

https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/1mbejmn/guy_proposing_to_his_girlfriend_in_front_of_ozzy/

Listening to esp the first two records and thinking about what Darnielle wrote in his obit and what was said a bit upthread but the way Ozzy's voice follows the riff (and Butler too to an extent) is really what gives the music its hypnotic, bloody-minded "otherness" that really defines them.

Also last month I had surgery and when I was coming to in the operating room there was music playing and I was foggy from the anesthesia but I realized it was "War Pigs" and I asked the nurse "you can hear that right, you can hear Black Sabbath right now too right?" I might have briefly thought I was dead.

Later I was trying to get dressed and my wife is helping me and a nurse trying to give me meds and I'm fumbling with my phone "wait...I...have...to...text UMS..."War Pigs""

I love all of this renewed appreciation for Ozzy. This past week, I've encountered Ozzy and Sabbath songs in public spaces at least half a dozen times. It all culminated when I walked in to find my 15-year-old daughter listening to War Pigs. :)

Also,this is like a million x-posts, but I won't stand for any negative talk about Little Dolls. What an incredible song! Bob Daisley's bass line in the chorus, that amazing bridge, the poppy melody paired with voodoo themes—it's like my personal audio cupcake.

I've been wearing my Vol. 4 t-shirt a lot over the past few weeks and have had people stop me in all sorts of places to acknowledge or maybe throw me some devil horns. It rules.

^ that's so wonderful

i wore my Master of Reality Sab shirt when I went to the doc with my mother and a woman in her 70s came up to me, made a praying motion, and bowed, and said "may he rest in peace"