OZZY OSBOURNE SAID HE WAS “NOT ALLOWED TO [ANY] HAVE FUN” WHILE TOURING WITH BLACK SABBATH
Jake Chessum of Rolling Stone has written a feature story on Ozzy Osbourne. Portions of the column appear below.
…For the past 50 years, Ozzy Osbourne has been heavy rock’s MVP. He gave metal a sense of menace during his first 10-year tour of duty with Black Sabbath, approximating the sound of a nervous breakdown on songs like Paranoid and Iron Man. Then as a solo artist, he redefined the genre in the Eighties, picking up the pace of his songs and injecting them with baroque noir. He introduced the world to a pantheon of guitar heroes, including Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and his longtime foil, the blond-maned dynamo Zakk Wylde. He became a concert draw and provided crucial stages for everyone from Metallica to Korn in their infancies. In the mid-Nineties, he concocted Ozzfest, hard rock’s answer to Lollapalooza.
And he’s reaped the rewards. All but two of his studio albums — which contain anthems like Crazy Train, Flying High Again and Shot in the Dark — have been certified gold or platinum, and he’s won a Grammy for I Don’t Want to Change the World. When Rolling Stone picked the 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time in 2017, the list contained more recordings by Ozzy than any other artist. And don’t forget, he was able to translate his success into reality-TV megastardom on The Osbournes.
“I never thought I’d make it this far,” he says. “Fifty years is a lot. I don’t understand why I’m alive still after the hell-raising days. I guess whoever the man is upstairs, if there even is one, wants me to stick around.”
[When Ozzy first launched a solo career after being fired from his original band Black Sabbath] his [music started to] climb the charts. Meanwhile, Black Sabbath carried on with former Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio as their lead vocalist, and Ozzy embraced the competitive spirit. “I started a war with them and they just got all f–king pissed off,” he recalls. “I admired Ronnie Dio at the end of the day. He had a great voice and was a good singer. They should have had a go at me, but they all just got pissed off. It was more like a divorce, really.” Within a few years, he was seriously outpacing his former bandmates in sales……Although he seemed to enjoy Black Sabbath’s farewell tour when it was happening, Ozzy says now it wasn’t the case. “With Sabbath, all I am is a singer with a band,” he says on his day off. “This is a different thing. I’ve got a lot of freedom and I have fun with it.”
“[I’m} not allowed to have f–king fun with Sabbath,” he continues. “It’s too serious. Tony [Iommi] was trying to have a go at me, saying, ‘Don’t fucking talk over my solos.’ I go, ‘OK, are you sure? ‘Cause most of the f–king song is solos. The intro to the song is f–kin’ five minutes and then I sing for about two seconds and then it’s another one.’ With my own thing, I’m looking to have fun, and that’s what music’s about for me. I’m not a serious f–king singer. I’m just a frontman who’s trying to get the crowd going in front…”
…”I’d like to do another album with Zakk if I could.” Ozzy currently has a handful of song ideas that he’s just sitting on for the right time. “There’s one called Mr. Armageddon, which is gonna be a good song,” he says. And what will it be about? “What do you think? It’s not about Christmas. It’s a nice, sweet little song about a man called Mr. Armageddon” Ozzy laughs…
…“I had no idea when we did our first Black Sabbath album, 50 years up the road, I’d be doing all these shows in front of 20,000 people…,” he [says]. “I thought, ‘This will be good for a couple of albums and I’ll get a few chicks along the way.’ I left Sabbath and I did a great thing on my own. I met Randy Rhoads. He was a phenomenal guy. My life has just been unbelievable. You couldn’t write my story; you couldn’t invent me.”
Read the entire article at Rolling Stone.
source: rollingstone.com
Guess Ozzy needs some headlines…too bad he has to resort to bad-mouthing his time in Sabbath and specifically Tony Iommi. 13 was a decent album, they played to huge crowds and got to end it in their hometown. Just leave it alone!
He still works for the Stern show and i’m sure eddie can tell you the rest
Sorry, not going to bother asking Eddie.
If you don’t care to explain it yourself, it is what it is, but based on your last reply, it leads me to believe that is was a slight.
Whenever richard talks about films, albums etc..,he says that is my favorite and howard goofs on him all the time not just because he is always saying something is his fav but the way he says it too. It was not intended to be an insult, its just your quote made me think of richard.
Okay, so sorry about that-LOL!
Unlike Mr. Christy, I have definitive favorites and I don’t throw that word around a lot. But, I could understand why Howard would tease him for saying that ad nauseum. How can everyone, and everything, be one’s favorite?? LOL!!!!
Finally, I should have known that anyone named after a Priest song, is on my side. After all, you know they are my, wait for it….wait for it…my all time FAVORITE band-LOL!!!
I saw The End tour and Ozzy looked to be having a lot of fun on stage. It’s Tony’s band, always has been and maybe that gets under Ozzy’s skin a little. But Sabbath’s music is much more ominous and darker than most of Ozzy’s solo stuff and Tony wants that vibe of heaviness and seriousness. But I’m sure Ozzy could do more than he’s making it out to be. Ozzy had fun talking to the crowd, as he always did before, he rocked out, kept the chants going. I even saw Tony cracking smiles when Ozzy made funny gestures and faces at him. Geezer seemed to be having fun to. They ended that tour and despite the sad absence of Bill, they did a great tour and ended their career in their hometown. So why is Ozzy taking shots at Tony now? It doesnt make sense. I had a blast at that concert, but hearing Ozzy saying stuff like this kind of tarnished the experience some.
I saw Randy perform with Ozzy at the San Diego Sports Arena on January 4, 1982, a little over two months before his untimely death. Randy was dressed in with a studded leather vest. And with his long blond hair and the castle stage set up, along with Tommy Aldridge sitting up high on the tall drum riser, Randy looked like such the rock star and guitar hero that he was. Randy had great stage presence and really got into putting on a memorable show for the fans. He played to the audience. Randy was small in stature, but he looked even smaller behind his guitars as he played them. Ozzy seemed proud of Randy’s abilities, and would often come to Randy’s side of the stage to either lift him up or showcase him in some manner. Randy moved about the stage somewhat, which is something Rudy Sarzo did not do. Rudy stayed on his side of the stage, within a small boundary area that he never left. Learned later from reading Sarzo’s book that Ozzy wanted Sarzo to stay put and not move about.
Randy’s playing was larger than life. His stage presence and guitar ability were unlike what you would expect from somebody of Randy’s demeanor. I saw “greatness” that evening. It wasn’t until after his death did I realize how fortunate I was to have witnessed Rhoads in action. I was an impressionable kid who was just starting to learn to play the guitar, and Randy’s abilities and performance that evening wanted me to have the ability he did (which, unfortunately, I do not). Rhoads became my favorite guitarist after that evening, and still remains my favorite to this day. I play Jackson guitars today because that what Rhoads played. I also have a cream colored Gibson Les Paul Custom with gold hardware because that’s also what Rhoads played. I continue to be amazed at how many guitarists are so influenced by Rhoads considering his limited musical output. Rhoads greatly helped resurrect Ozzy’s career after being fired by Black Sabbath, and he created a great legacy for other Ozzy guitarists to follow.
Thank you so much for sharing that story, Rattle.
Rhoads was one of kind and you were so lucky to have witnessed such an innovative, and creative, rock guitarist.
D 🙂
Thanks for sharing your experience. Must’ve been like seeing Edward Van Halen perform when Randy did Suicide Solution. And how he made his guitar just scream. Great stuff.