I remember a time when Ozzy Osbourne was one of the most feared icons in music. As the former lead singer of Black Sabbath, Ozzy had already established himself as an iconic Heavy Metal frontman. Ozzy was the one that fans of the band identified with and he was the one that connected with the audience and made them feel as though they were part of the band and the show. Ozzy wasn’t quite the madman that he would later come to be known but as a Metalhead kid of the 80’s, the Ozzy of my generation was something not of this planet, species or time.
Ozzy was a force to be reckoned with. Every parent’s worst nightmare was to go into their kid’s room and find a copy of Blizzard of Oz, Diary of a Madman for God forbid, “Speak of the Devil”. The image that he portrayed one these albums was one of pure evil. Here’s Ozzy on crawling on the floor holding a huge cross over his head looking like a lunatic. Wait, that’s not enough? Here’s Ozzy in a room full of black magic crap and upside crosses making Linda Blair in “The Exorcist” look like a Penthouse Pet. Still not enough? How about Ozzy with devil horns coming out of his head and about 1/2 of a cup of strawberry jam oozing out of his mouth like he just had a toddler for brunch? That was Ozzy Osbourne folks. Ozzy was something that every kid just looked at like he was larger than life. Matter of fact, as a kid, I even wondered if he was human of this planet.
Deep in the inner sanctum of my room, walls covered in edge to edge pictures from Faces, Metal Edge and even those lame Circus and Hit Parader magazines, I would read stories about this man and wonder how the fuck this guy could be human? I remember reading about the infamous tour with
Motley Crue and how Ozzy walked off of his tour bus, saw a line of ants marching toward a candy bar on the ground and snorted the entire line up with a straw. “Holy Shit!”, I can recall exclaiming to myself, “This guy is a bad motherfucker!”. Just when I thought he couldn’t get more insane, I read about how Ozzy walked into a record company office with two white doves to celebrate the signing of his record contract by throwing one in the air and then biting the head off of the other. Other stories also surfaced about the Prince of Darkness such as a bat being thrown on the stage which Ozzy picked up and bit the head off of and then the much tamer but oh so funny story of Ozzy dropping trou and pissing on the side of the Alamo. This guy is unreal!
In those days, being an Ozzy fan was pretty taboo. If you were an Ozzy fan, you were pretty damn extreme and if your parents were cool with you listening to Ozzy, you had cool fucking parents. I just remember the time I brought home Blizzard of Oz and my dad wanted to listen to it with me. The first thing he said was, “Oh, this is the guy from Black Sabbath right? Well, they stunk and this stinks even more. If you like it, whatever floats your boat.” and he exited the room.
The funny thing about Ozzy is that while his over all image was absolutely horrifying to many, his music was far from scary or terrifying. Actually, NOTHING is more creepy sounding than the debut Black Sabbath album. This material was actually pretty radio friendly. Matter of fact, I remember hearing “So Tired” from “Bark At The Moon” once on the radio while my mom was driving and she goes, “This is a pretty song. Who is this?” to which I said, “It’s Ozzy Osbourne mom!”. She just looked completely caught off guard and in awe.
Over the years, being an Ozzy fan lost his effectiveness as far as being a
badass. By 1986, Ozzy was putting out watered down poppy hard rock like “The Ultimate Sin” and wearing rhinestone covered capes and a microphone with tinsel dangling from it. The reigning Prince of Darkness all of the sudden became a lot less menacing and scary and started to look as ridiculous as Poison and trust me, the only scary thing about Poison was that they could wear make-up better than any woman I had ever seen in my entire life. Besides, Jake E. Lee was one of the worst fucking guitar players I had ever heard.
Ozzy answered our prayers and brought in a new guitar player in 1988, a young kid out of New Jersey by the name of Zakk 
Wylde. This guy looked like Randy Rhoads and he played with balls the size of Godzilla. The songs were heavy and it sounded like Ozzy was really stepping up to the plate. The over all sound of “No Rest For The Wicked” is what I like to consider classic Ozzy. In my opinion, the four best Ozzy records are “Blizzard of Ozz”, “Diary of a Madman”, “No Rest For The Wicked” and “No More Tears”. Those four albums are a legacy within themselves that any artist should be more than proud to look back upon.
In 1991, Ozzy released “No More Tears” which was a collection of songs that boasted a few top 40 songs and the use of songwriters such as Lemmy Kilmeister and long time lyricist/bassist Bob Daisley. Over the years, I would be shocked to learn that Ozzy was merely a figurehead for his music all these years. The man next to never wrote a single lyric. Basically, he would hum a melody to his guitarist at the time and the guitarist would write the music, Daisley or someone else (usually Wylde or for the “No More Tears” album, Lemmy) would write the lyrics and BAM, Ozzy gets a major songwriting credit. Anyways, in 1992, it was announced that Ozzy was going to go into retirement and that this was it. Enter the “NO MORE TOURS” TOUR.
1992 was to be a legendary year. The reigning Prince of Darkness was calling it quits and he was going out on top. He toured that summer playing better and looking better than he had since the early Sabbath days. He was fit, energetic and most of all, he was lucid. The shows were unstoppable and the
set list served as a career retrospective. Opening the shows with the Sabbath classic “Paranoid”, Ozzy delivered the goods with his band firing on all cylinders. I remember catching the show in Atlanta that summer and thinking to myself that I was witnessing something really amazing. I’m seeing Ozzy Osbourne for the last time ever and he’s so amazing. I just wanted to always remember the last time I ever saw Ozzy live as the amazing thing I had just witnessed. Well, as we all know, we can thank Mrs. Sharron Osbourne for making that NOT happen.
Not but three years later, Ozzy is bored of retirement and is back on the road with his “Retirement Sucks” tour. Really? WOW! Ozzy’s back. HOORAH! I was young and stupid but I was so excited to have Ozzy back. I did catch the show on this tour and ya know, he really wasn’t that bad. He still looked great, 
sounded great and had a new band. Zakk Wylde was off doing his “Pride & Glory” thang and we were treated to the arrival of Joe Holmes on guitar, Mike Bordin (formerly of Faith No More) on drums and former Suicidal Tendencies/future Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo. While the show wasn’t bad, something just didn’t feel right. It felt forced it felt, well, too soon. It’s kinda like breaking up with a girlfriend and then her trying to get back with you six months later, just when you were about over her all the way but because the sex was so good, you have her back. Well, Ozzy and I weren’t having sex but… oh well, you get the picture.
In coming years, Ozzy would be reduced from being the reigning Prince of Darkness, the figure in black so to speak, to a bumbling, staggering Muppet. The Osbournes reality TV show hit MTV in 2002 and that was the beginning of the end. Gone was the madman of metal. This isn’t want I wanted to see. I wanted to remember Ozzy as that crazy ass mother fucker running around on
a stage, jumping in the air and throwing buckets of water on everyone. Instead, I get to see the madman of metal struggling to make a bag of microwave popcorn and to even complete a full sentence without stuttering and gazing off into space. For once, my own father seemed cooler and more together than Ozzy.
It’s totally debatable whether one can blame Sharron Osbourne for this debacle. On one hand, Sharron has been running Ozzy’s career from day one of his solo life and had it not been for her, we may have never known of Ozzy Osbourne aside from the fact that he sang for “that band back a long time ago”. On The other hand, it was her doing that things like “The Osbournes” reality show and all those dreaded Ozzfest tours ever occurred. The man is STILL on the road to this day and he sounds horrible. The band is tuned down so low that the songs aren’t even recognizable and his voice is gone forever. Not just kind of rough, completely gone. Bye Bye! It’s really a shame.
Ozzy Osbourne had the opportunity, in 1992, to walk away from it all a legend. He could have left behind a legacy of great albums and live performances that would make all those that never got the chance to witness it envious. Instead, we are left with an aging rock star that has worn out his 
welcome and is far past his prime. It’s sad for me to see actually and sometimes hard to swallow. When I saw The Ramones on their farewell tour back in 1996 in Atlanta and that was the last time I ever saw them. They played their last show on August 6, 1996 and never came back. I will always hold that close to my heart and know it was something special. I wish I could do that for Ozzy but instead, I get to see a tarnished legacy. What is this that stands before me? Well, a man who should have said good bye for good in 1992, that’s who.
©Don de Leaumont 2009
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