Dearly Departed: The Prince of Darkness

By Brian Tarquin | Photos: Tom Craig

Requiem for a Prince

John Michael Osbourne or better known as Ozzy the “Prince of Darkness” passed away on July 22, 2025. Ozzy along with Black Sabbath in particularly, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward pioneered the genre that would later be dub “Heavy Metal”. Though I am against pigeonhole genre naming for music, however for simplicity for the tone challenged this is the easiest way to describe Ozzy’s essence. He had the uncanny knack of serving us on a silver platter a delightful array of guitarists through his many years.

As Steve Morse noted, “Ozzy's best music came from his collaboration with Bob Daisley, Lee Kirslake, and Randy Rhodes. They had an amazing sound, great writing and arranging. He sure had a good sense of finding the great musicians."

I must fully agree, Randy Rhodes completely help turn around his fleeting career after Black Sabbath. This was the Ozzy that captured our ears at the time with the release of Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman. Though we already knew him as the lead singer from those early Black Sabbath releases as Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and of course Sabotage. However, Ozzy in Sabbath was more considered in my circles as a stoner band. Ironically, I don’t think Ozzy found his true place in history until he went solo. By the same token I don’t think Sabbath reach their full sound potential until the album Heaven and Hell with Dio.

Black Sabbath

Ozzy and Sabbath span back to 1967 Birmingham, England when bassist Geezer Butler formed the band Rare Breed which was headed up on vocals by Ozzy. Soon dissolved they formed Polka Tulk Blues which brought in guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. After a few name incarnations in 1969 they settled on Black Sabbath. Initially the named was inspired by the 1963 film of the same name starring Boris Karloff, a low budget campy Italian horror production directed by Mario Bava. The movie follows three different stories "The Telephone", "The Wurdulak" and "The Drop of Water". Unfortunately, the film was less than successful, however it spawned Geezer and Ozzy to write the title track for the debut album. In a funny interlude Ozzy stated when he played the album for his father he commented, "Are you sure you're only drinking the occasional beer?". Remarkably they recorded the whole album in a 12-hour session on October 16, 1969, at Regent Sounds Studios on Denmark Street, London. Iommi stated "We thought, we have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing. So, we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff." Unlike the film, their album had a successful debut hitting #3 on the UK Rock Charts and #23 on the US Billboard 200. It was released on Vertigo (UK) and Warner Bros (US) achieving certified Gold and Platinum respectively.

But I think the real breakthrough and legacy to the band was achieved on their sophomore album Paranoid. Produced by Rodger Bain a legend in his own, having worked with Judas Priest on Rocka Rolla. Geezer stated, “he let us record our first album live which was, and still is, an uncommon method of recording, when other producers had refused.” They recorded it at the same studio as their first release garnering what became Black Sabbath anthems as the title cut, “Iron Man”, “War Pigs” and “Electric Funeral”. Geezer recalls writing the song “War Pigs”, "I wanted to write a song called 'Walpurgis' – you know, the Satanic version of Christmas – write it about that Satan isn't a spiritual thing, it's warmongers. That's who the real Satanists are, all these people who are running the banks and the world and trying to get the working class to fight the wars for them. We sent it off to the record company and they said, 'No, we're not going to call it that. Too Satanic!' So, I changed it to 'War Pigs'." For “Iron Man” when Tony wrote the iconic riff Ozzy commented "like a big iron bloke walking around". Subsequently Geezer went off and wrote the lyrics. It is important to note that Butler was a major contributor to the band’s lyrics and music. Of course, Tony became the great riff mister of all time with his dark and menacing guitar licks. Driven by Bill Ward’s sixties approach to playing drums, comparatively to Mitch Mitchell and Keith Moon. And Ozzy…well his delivery speaks for itself. When asked about Ozzy’s vocal style, Steve Vai comically stated, “he’s got his own zip code”.

The Ozzy Blizzard

As we all know Ozzy achieved great success in his career after being sacked from Black Sabbath in ’79 for alcohol and drug abuse…quite an accomplishment. Truly his real secret weapon was to emerge post Sabbath with his manager, wife and guardian angel Sharon Osbourne, who by hook or crook elevated him to being a household word. She is known for being an extremely tough businesswoman who had Ozzy’s interest first and foremost especially royalties! In all fairness you can’t speak about him without giving her equal credit to his success. After leaving Sabbath Ozzy recalls "I'd got £96,000 for my share of the name, so I'd just locked myself away and spent three months doing coke and booze. My thinking was, 'This is my last party, because after this I'm going back to Birmingham and the dole." Don Arden who was Black Sabbath’s manager had different plans for Ozzy signing him to Jet Records for releasing new material as a solo project. Arden’s daughter Sharon flew to Los Angeles where Ozzy was partying it up. She went there for the sole purpose to look after Ozzy. In plane talk, to protect Arden’s investment with the original goal for Ozzy to return to Black Sabbath. There also was the idea floating around by management for his new solo band to be called "Son of Sabbath".

Gary Moore recalled "When I lived in Los Angeles", I helped him to audition musicians. If drummers were trying out, I played guitar, and if a bassist came along, my drummer would help out. We felt sorry for him, basically. He was always hovering around trying to get me to join, and I wasn't having any of it."

I truly believe that Sharon along with his original bandmates Randy Rhodes, Bob Daisley, Lee Kirslake saved his life at the time and help form his legacy. Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman were very sacred and special albums for Ozzy. They showed a life after Black Sabbath, but more importantly resurrected his career and introduced him to entirely new audience that would cherish his music and bring them into the fold as Sabbath fans. His music would span from the Baby Boomer, Gen X and beyond. Travis Stever from Coheed and Cambria hits the nail on the head stating, “Memories are all through my life with Ozzy at the center and his songs as the soundtrack. I received my first Black Sabbath tablature and lyric book at 12. It was the ‘We Sold Our Souls for Rock n Roll’ book. I had already been long converted into the sonic temple of Sabbath and the book became my bible while Ozzy would voice the sermons. That same year ‘No More Tears’ was released. I went to buy it at Sam Goody and grabbed ‘Just Say Ozzy’ instead because it was on sale, and I didn’t have enough for ‘No More Tears’. I had to leave with something to hold me over. Because any Ozzy was better than no Ozzy.”

Ozzy’s Axemen

Well as we all know the huge attraction to Ozzy’s music was his uncanny choice of great guitarists. Obviously, this started with Tony Iommi, but when he went solo the bar was raised quite a bit with Randy Rhodes. Randy would change the way a lot of guitarists approached the guitar, especially with hard rock. His classical influence was heard throughout the music in songs like “Mr. Crowley” and “Diary of a Madman”. He helped form and initiate the neo-classical metal scene. However, he wasn’t a mindless shredder sweep picking arpeggios, he was very melodic and mixed in a wonderful amount of rock-blues techniques. He borrowed the 2-hand tapping technique of Eddie Van Halen and formed it into his own style. So, when he unexpectedly passed away on March 19, 1982 in a plane crash in Leesburg, FL.

Ozzy stated, “At approximately 9:00 a.m. I was awoken from my sleep by a loud explosion. I immediately thought that we'd hit a vehicle on the road. I got out of the bed, screaming to my fiancée, Sharon, 'Get off the bus.' Meanwhile, she was screaming to everyone else to get off the bus. After getting out of the bus, I saw that a plane had crashed. I didn't know who was on the plane at the time. When we realized that our people were on the plane, I found it very difficult to get assistance from anyone to help. In fact, it took almost a half-hour before anyone arrived. One small fire engine arrived, that appeared to squirt three gallons of water over the inferno. We asked for further assistance, such as telephones, and didn't receive any further help. In the end, we finally found a telephone and Sharon phoned her father.”

Eddie Van Halen even commented on the tragedy, "They had to have been fucked up when it happened…You don't fly that low and smash into a crew bus and then hit the house. (The pilot) was jerking off. That's just plain stupidity. I feel so sorry for (Rhoads)."

Yes, that shook the entire rock guitar world with such a loss for everyone. I remember when it was announced over the radio and I thought what stupid prank to buzz Ozzy’s tour bus, not just once but three times. Later Randy was temporarily replaced by Bernie Tormé and then Brad Gillis for the tour and for the live album Speak of the Devil. And as you would imagine it was not nearly the same. However, the man with 9 Lives bounced back in 1983 with the release of Bark at the Moon featuring a great new talented guitarist Jake E Lee. Unfortunately, there was a lot of contention with management on writing credits for this album and as Jake claimed he had composed the songs with Ozzy. However, he was forced to sign a contract which stated he gave up all claims to compositions and publishing relating to the album. As a typical rock musician in the 80’s in the L.A. music scene he had no legal advice and was forced to sign because Ozzy’s wife threatened to fire him and re-record everything with a replacement guitarist. In fact, Lee told Eddie Truck on That Metal Show he just wanted credit for having written the songs and was not interested in the publishing money. Similar claims have been made in the past by Bob Daisley and Lee Kirslake regarding Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman. The Ultimate Sin was the follow up album with Lee in 1986 which became his highest charting album to date and went Double Platinum featuring the MTV hit “Shot in the Dark”.

That brings us to Zakk Wylde who has been Ozzy’s longest standing guitarist in his career. A wonderful friend of mine Gary Hoey participated in those huge auditions at the time, stating
“Ozzy had the most impact on my career. Auditioning for him was unreal. He made me believe in myself. RIP Ozzy”. Gary told me he completely understood why Ozzy took Zakk, comically saying that if he squinted his eyes from across the stage he would see Randy Rhodes. Plus, Zakk played remarkable like Randy at the time. In 1988 the man with all these lives launched another chapter in his life. Producers Roy Thomas Baker and Keith Olsen recorded No Rest for the Wicked at Enterprise Studios (Los Angeles) and Goodnight L.A. Studio. This had a number of radio friendly songs as “Crazy Babies” and “Miracle Man” a great criticism about Jimmy Swaggart who was involved with a prostitution scandal. From this point on he survived the 90’s grunge scene and had large following with huge releases like No More Tears, Ozzmosis and Black Rain. In 2010 Ozzy introduced the world to Gus G a talented metal guitarist from Greece on the album Scream. Finally in 2022 Ozzy recorded with Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton on the album Patient Number 9.

Conclusion
But the most unlikely platform that no one saw coming was his huge fame garnered from the reality show about his family life called The Osbournes. Admittedly I lost interest by this point, however this is when the world became enthralled with Ozzy. It even became one of MTV's greatest hit shows running from 2002 to 2005. The Osbournes hosted the 30th Annual American Music Awards in January 2003 and in 2008 Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne hosted the 2008 BRIT Awards held at Earls Court, London. Wait Earl’s Court?…didn’t Black Sabbath play there in the 70’s? Then believe or not in 2006 Ozzy appeared in a TV commercial for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! in the UK. Well to be quite honest this leaves me a bit nauseous because there is such a thing as over commercializing. Considering the fact Ozzy was part of the fray in the 70’s and 80’s for him to become mainstream is quite disappointing to me. However, there is that Sharon management thing again to squeeze every ruble out, and to gain fame status for both her and her offspring.
This is a far cry from “Walpurgis” and I fear that the public will remember Ozzy for the frivolous reality show instead of the great music he gave the world. But I completely agree with the comment from Hal Lindes of Dire Straits, “Ozzy, what a voice. Emotionally connects instantly. It’s beyond song storytelling, it’s other worldly. Chock full of raw soul and distinctiveness, completely unique. For me, there’s no singer like Ozzy, he’ll be so sadly missed.”