Back then, Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t known as the dark prince. Ozzy – along with Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – saw themselves as a “heavy underground band” who were simply trying to escape factory work. The band’s self-titled debut and follow-up, Paranoid, would ignite the heavy metal genre and inspire generations of fans and musicians with the band’s harder and heavier musical drive, coupled with Ozzy’s unique vocals and what many parents considered satanic lyrics. As Butler told Rolling Stone in the early 1970s, “It’s a Satanic world. The devil’s more in control now. People can’t come together. There’s no equality. It’s a sin to put yourself above other people, and yet that’s what people do” – and continue to do more than 50 years later.
“Black Sabbath,” “The Wizard,” “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” – an anti-war song still relevant today – Ozzy would lead the band to numerous hits and more than 64 million records sold worldwide. He would continue that trend as a solo artist, selling more than 50 million albums that included classics such as Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman and Bark at the Moon – an album with a cover that caused a preacher from my youth to denounce the album as a “gateway to hell.” (Of course, Ozzy biting the head off a bat in 1982 didn’t help.)
Ozzy was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Black Sabbath in 2006 and again as a solo artist in 2024.
He died on Tuesday, weeks after his farewell show on July 5. His final concert raised $190 million for three charities helping Parkinson's research and children's hospitals. He was 76.
"It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love," Ozzy’s family wrote in a statement, posted to social media.
Ozzy’s bandmates also paid tribute to him on Instagram.
“I just can’t believe it! My dear, dear friend Ozzy has passed away only weeks after our show at Villa Park. It’s just such heartbreaking news that I can’t really find the words. There won’t ever be another like him. Geezer, Bill and I have lost our brother,” Lommi wrote.
“Goodbye, dear friend. Thanks for all those years. We had some great fun. Four kids from Aston—who’d have thought, eh? I'm so glad we got to do it one last time, back in Aston. Love you,” Butler wrote.
“Where will I find you now? In the memories, our unspoken embraces, our missed phone calls, no, you’re forever in my heart,” Ward wrote.
Ozzy’s connection to Dallas goes back nearly as long as his connection to bats. He first came to the area in the late 1970s with Black Sabbath and would return with the band in the late ’90s and early 2000s as part of Ozzfest, a music festival that has grossed more than $100 million since 1996 and showcased the who’s who of metal acts such as Korn, Slayer, Type O’ Negative and Pantera.
“Ozzy took us on our very first big arena tour,” Korn posted to social media on Tuesday. “He and Sharon presented us with our first gold record. He taught us so much about the music industry, and we looked up to him. We love you forever, our Prince of Darkness. Thank you for all of the unforgettable memories and for paving the way.”
In 1978, the Dallas Morning News dropped a scathing concert review of Black Sabbath by music critic Pete Oppel, who called them a group “that has parlayed a warped fascination with black magic, satanism and the occult into its natural offshoot – heavy metal rock and roll. And that’s it. That’s all this band has really ever accomplished.”
“...Sabbath has, in Ozzie Osbourne, its own vocalist, which can also be a commentary on the ‘can’t walk and chew gum at the same time’ syndrome in rock today,” Oppel wrote.
But I’m pretty sure I saw Ozzy walk, sing and moon an audience of 30,000 people at the same time at Ozzfest in the late ’90s, possibly early 2000s. (Difficult to recall the shows due to the purple haze I was experiencing at the time of my attendance.)
Christian Larson of Necrofier and the Hell’s Heroes metal festival in Houston called Ozzy’s influence on music “immeasurable.” He saw Black Sabbath for the first time in 2005 at Ozzfest. He didn’t mention a mooning but instead wrote via email:
“When they started playing the song Black Sabbath, the wind started to blow and as the song was building a storm came right when the song picks up. The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I got goosebumps. Ozzy went wild as this happened. The devil showed up to hear the song, applauding with the storm.”It wasn’t just Ozzy’s Black Sabbath appearances that were memorable.
Local metal guitarists Rick Perry and Scott Shelby of Gammacide recalled seeing Ozzy’s solo shows back in the 1980s. Perry caught Ozzy’s show at Will Rogers in Fort Worth with Motorhead as an opener and was blown away by Ozzy’s new guitarist, Randy Rhoads, who would die in March 1982. Ozzy would return the next year to sell out Reunion Arena in Dallas for the Diary of a Madman Tour, the first show that Shelby would catch – though he would recall Ozzy’s Texxas Jam performance at the Cotton Bowl when Ozzy shaved his head and wore a wig that no one realized until “he went crazy all bald” on stage.
Ozzy Osbourne / Facebook
Shelby called Ozzy “the true Elvis of metal, a real king who always reinvents himself and takes on new challenges.”
Of course, it’s not just old school metal heads recalling Ozzy’s influence and mourning his passing. Even the younger ones like Riley William Rogers, guitarist and vocalist of The Infamists, shared that North Texas bands like The Infamists wouldn't exist without Ozzy and Sabbath, calling their influence “engrained in our DNA.”
“To me, he’s the ultimate front man because he helped pioneer a new genre but also transcended into a chaotic pop culture mythology,” Rogers says. “Everyone knows about the bats, the doves, the ants and the Alamo. Most guitar players like me probably started out by learning ‘Iron Man,’ ‘War Pigs,’ ‘Paranoid,’ or ‘Crazy Train’ at some point. There’s Ozzy lore and songs for every generation. He comes off completely insane, and yet he’s probably a more significant figure than most world leaders ever will be.”
“...I guess every hard rock and heavy metal band is a little like a Sabbath tribute in some way if you listen hard or smoke long enough.”
Once word of Ozzy’s death spread online Tuesday afternoon, social media tributes followed by the thousands, showcasing that Ozzy—as well as his bandmates in and out of Black Sabbath—had gone on to touch more lives and accomplish far more than music critics could have imagined in the late 1970s.
Metallica, one of the four founders of thrash metal, called Ozzy a “hero, icon, pioneer, inspiration, mentor and, most of all, friend.”
1970s rocker Alice Cooper who, similar to Ozzy, is still igniting the stage in his 70s, shared a quote via social media: “Well, we all know that time is going to take us rockers, but when the giants fall, it’s really hard to accept. Even though everybody saw it coming with Ozzy, it just took our breaths away when it happened. So Ozzy and family – your records and your music and your legend and all that you brought – the humor to the rock business – will live on forever and we’re gonna miss you, man.”
Hell, even Kermit the Frog had been touched by Ozzy, sharing via the Muppets' Facebook page: “No one rocked harder than the great Ozzy Osbourne. We loved working with him on our album ‘Kermit: Unpigged.’ He recorded ‘Born to Be Wild’ with Miss Piggy – the perfect song for both of them! Every time we bump into Ozzy over the years, he made us feel just as cool as he was.”
In a Tuesday evening Facebook post, Pete Freedman, a former music editor at the Dallas Observer, shared his story of an impromptu 30-minute interview with the “Prince of Darkness” that Sharon Osbourne made possible for a 2008 cover story for the Observer.
Mark Riddick (Riddick Art)
“He was great, same as Sharon,” Freedman wrote. “He was self-deprecating, he was honest, he was FUNNY. He was a total gentleman, and he gave me — a baby-faced 24-year-old music critic — all the time I could ask for…”
“...It's true: You never know what your heroes are like until you meet them. Sometimes, if you're lucky, they exceed your wildest expectations.”
Rest in peace, Ozzy. He meant so much to many. But here in Dallas, he was the Godfather of heavy metal. Ozzy is still going off the rails on his crazy train — somewhere out in black heaven.
