To say the world of music is at a loss today is an understatement at the passing of Ozzy Osbourne.
The Godfather of Heavy Metal is a rare individual in music that’s had the opportunity to create a genre of music that has grown and flourished into something greater than the music they created themselves. Ozzy came together with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler & Bill Ward, to create Black Sabbath to usher in the age of Heavy Metal in the 70’s and transformed Hard Rock into an even darker and more aggressive version itself, that branched out into so many subgenres that it rivaled the very Rock & Roll it came from. Ozzy’s influence is immeasurable, but his musical influence from the musicians he popularized and the bands he pushed by touring with him is touch that has created legends in the industry that still hold greatness to this day.
Many great musicians got either their start or got a huge push playing for Ozzy, starting with his band Blizzard of Ozz. Originally planned to be a supergroup to help reignite Ozzy’s career after being fired from Black Sabbath, but the end result was that the name of the band was the name of the album to launch Ozzy’s solo career, as the band was made up of Lee Kerslake of Uriah Heep, bassist Bob Daisley & keyboardist Don Airey of Rainbow and, the prodigy that was guitarist Randy Rhoads of, then up and coming LA band Quiet Riot.
The album and the band helped bring Ozzy back into the spotlight, which overshadowed Sabbath who found new life with Ronnie James Dio. By his next album Ozzy would recruit the future Whitesnake rhythm section of Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldrigde, and Diary Of A Madman would cement Ozzy’s solo career into the 80’s. The unfortunate death of Randy Rhoads would send Ozzy spiraling into addiction, but performing would keep his sanity as he recruited Night Ranger’s Brad Gillis to perform on his live album “Speak Of The Devil” which was made up of all of Osbourne’s Black Sabbath songs. The album and the concert would get attention from then rising music channel MTV, and give Ozzy crossover appeal to the masses who had little interest or knowledge of Heavy Metal.
Starting over again Ozzy would create a new band for his next two albums, which featured the young Jake E. Lee from the band Rough Cutt (whose members would later spawn Orgy), to create the legendary “Bark At The Moon” and The Ultimate Sin which was served almost as a concept album. Jake’s run in the Ozzy band took Osbourne out of the 80’s and is possibly his most criticized musical time, as Lee bore the weight of trying to replace the legend of Randy Rhoads.
Into the 90’s would find Ozzy recruiting a virtual unknown in Zakk Wylde, who brought harder, grittier sound to Ozzy’s music and gave Osbourne new life into the decade that began to spurn metal. Ozzy never slowed or waivered as he blazed through the decade off two classic albums with Wylde.
Ozzy’s albums lead to tours that gave so many up-and-coming bands the platform to vault into stardom. Motley Crue, Metallica, and Pantera are but a few that became giants in their own rights opening for Ozzy and in the 2000’s his Ozzfest festival kept metal alive when the media and the industry almost choked it out of existence. Ozzy Osbourne lived as he performed and his touch and influence is unrivaled even by his heroes The Beatles, as his adoration for his fans has made him a God of Rock that has no equal. A mere two weeks ago he mustered every bit of strength he could to perform one last time for his masses and showed every generation that bore witness what a true great performer really is. The music world is a lesser place today, but it will never forget the greatness of Ozzy Osbourne.