Ozzy Osbourne has persisted for so long in pop culture, and re-emerged in so many different guises — including fiendish hard-rock ringleader and bewildered Beverly Hills dad — that it’s easy to lose sight of the core of his fame. His bone-chilling work with Black Sabbath in the ’70s up through his surprisingly nuanced solo material in the ’80s and beyond have helped define the sound and persona of the heavy-metal frontman.
Despite a pair of well-received recent albums, Osbourne performances have been scarce in recent years, as he has battled health issues including Parkinson’s disease and emphysema. On Saturday, at a daylong event in his Birmingham, England hometown, the 76-year-old musician will appear both solo and with his original Black Sabbath bandmates — the guitarist Tony Iommi; the bassist Terence Butler, known as Geezer; and the drummer Bill Ward — at what’s being billed as his last-ever concert.
The lineup for the event — dreamed up by Sharon Osbourne, his wife and manager — reads like a roll call of some of the biggest names in metal and hard rock, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer and Tool. Its musical director is Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.
“I can tell you that if we weren’t invited to play, I would find a way to be there anyway, even if I had to sneak in under the fence line,” the Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that if there was no Black Sabbath, there would be no Metallica.”
Ulrich’s sense of debt to Osbourne is widely shared, both in the worlds of heavy guitar-based music and far beyond. “Ozzy is one of the most remarkable singers and performers of our time,” Elton John, who was a guest on Osbourne’s 2020 album, “Ordinary Man,” wrote in an email. “He has an amazing voice and has done so much for metal.”
In separate interviews via phone and email, five hard-rock luminaries reflected on Osbourne’s career and impact ahead of his final show: Ulrich; the singer-guitarist Lita Ford, who collaborated with Osbourne on the heart-wrenching late-80s ballad “Close My Eyes Forever”; the Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan; the Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford; and the Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. These are edited excerpts from the conversations.
Lars Ulrich of Metallica
I grew up in Copenhagen, and I saw Black Sabbath in ’77. In Denmark, you were getting a lot of British pop-rock, like Sweet and Slade and Alvin Stardust and the Rubettes, and Black Sabbath was so to the left of that.
Music at that time, especially in the harder rock world, was a lot about ability, guys that were really singing and screaming. With Ozzy, you really felt that he was more like a messenger, or he was the vessel that transmitted those words. It was a different kind of communication; it had a different level of authenticity to it.
Black Sabbath almost felt more like a mirror to what was going on in society. So when they were singing about Vietnam or “War Pigs” or napalm or protesting or about institutional authority, it had a different sense of reality.
I think when all the fans looked at Ozzy, you felt that he was at the same level as you, and he was a mirror of you. It was almost like he was a precursor to the punk rock that was coming a few years later, where there was an element of, like, “I could do that. I could be that person.”
Sharon and Ozzy were so gracious to let us be a part of their 1986 tour. It was great, obviously, just to be in the company of a legend of that level who was very much directly responsible for us even existing as a band. The fact that they believed in that enough to let us share the stage with him was crazy.
Lita Ford
The first show I ever saw was Black Sabbath, and it was absolutely life-changing. I was a huge fan at the time because, of course, I grew up with all the old Black Sabbath records, “Paranoid” and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” and I learned how to play all those riffs. I came away from that concert thinking, “Oh, this is what I want to do with my life. I want to make people feel like this band, Black Sabbath, is making me feel today.”
We all know Ozzy is a huge Paul McCartney fan. He loves that Beatles stuff, all the melodic harmonies — that’s where he comes from, his upbringing. And I think with “Close My Eyes Forever,” it was such a natural, effortless writing collaboration that we did. There was no pressure, “Oh, yeah, you have to write a Top 10 hit single.” No, we were just having a good time that night, and we happened to have come up with the song.
Mike Chapman, the producer, brought the song to life. He put us in the studio and we sang it together. We actually put a plexiglass plate in front of us, and we sang it face to face. Ozzy just sang it so effortlessly.
He is a talent, that’s for sure. He is a great singer. With all the craziness in his world, I think people overlook that fact.
Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins
I first heard Black Sabbath’s “Master of Reality” when I was 8 years old and have been chasing that sound as a musician ever since. What drew me to them was this sense of cosmic ennui and a shadowy warmth that is only theirs.
Ozzy: One of the greatest singers of all time of hard rock and ballads, as well as a great songwriter. Has a one-of-a-kind rapport with fans, and his endurance is tied to this affection that we have for him, and he with us.
For me, it’s his voice. All the other intangibles are there in a star, but his voice is a singular vehicle like Lennon or Sinatra in that it conveys emotions and hues beyond the lyric being sung. Impossible to quantify but unmissable.
I would say “Goodbye to Romance” is the signature Ozzy song, because it was Ozzy busting out from the disappointment and heartache of being fired by Sabbath and claiming his own greatness, too. It shows his range, his heart, and his willingness to take immense chances. A career-defining song.
There isn’t a single thing in my own music that hasn’t been touched by the immense shadow of Ozzy’s approach to singing and Tony Iommi’s approach to guitar. I am forever in their debt.
Rob Halford of Judas Priest
If we think about where Ozzy began with Black Sabbath, he laid his platform of uniqueness during those early tours. And then when he was away from Sabbath, I know I was thinking, “Well, what’s he going to do next?”
I always remain focused on Ozzy, the singer. I think he’s got an amazing voice, and I’ve always felt that Ozzy was a little bit overlooked in that area because of all the other stuff. So as a musician, as a singer in the songs and the albums, he is remarkable and one of a kind.
Ozzy always talked about himself and the messages and the world like everybody could understand it. It was as though he was your friend, but you were terrified to meet him. He’s a working man’s Everyman in the musical sense, and that’s a really important part of his legacy — his nonstop reference to his fans, how much he loves his fans. He feels he never can give his fans enough.
When he walks onstage, your eyes never leave him. There’s very few frontmen that can do that. He wraps his arms around 20,000 people in an arena, and he touches every single person.
Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe
Ozzy is a real big reason why we’re still here. I can’t emphasize enough how generous he was when we toured together in the early ’80s. Usually headliners reserve a bunch of lights and give openers a fraction of the PA system, so the opening band isn’t as loud as the headlining act. Ozzy was like, “You can have all the lights, have all the sound, have a [expletive] blast.” And that really moved me. I never really experienced that sort of generosity and equality that he wanted for everybody.
He has this sort of signature move. He kind of jumps in one place and claps. There’s an evil smirk on his face as he’s doing it, but I think the evil smirk is happiness because the place is going bananas. It’s letting the audience know that you are enjoying it just as much or more than they are. That’s connecting with people. That connection’s important, man. Otherwise, you’re just kind of doing it for yourself.
I remember when “The Osbournes” first came out, I was like, “Holy [expletive], this is cool. This is letting people into his crazy train.” That’s when reality television was blowing up, and I think a lot of people, and especially young people that were watching that show, probably had no clue he was in Black Sabbath by then. The guy just keeps coming back and — not reinventing himself, but finding other ways to get to people and have fun on and off the stage.
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