The Death Of Ozz

Remembering the rock legend and his musical legacy

Ozzy Osbourne passed away Tuesday at the age of 76. It’s remarkable the heavy metal legend lived so long. Ozzy consumed Olympic levels of drugs and booze in the 70s and 80s. He had many near-scraps with death before he sobered up and became a popular reality TV star in the 2000s. While many Americans will remember him as the goofy patriarch of “The Osbournes,” his music is what will live on long after he’s buried.

Ozzy was an important cultural figure. Without him, we wouldn’t have heavy metal, which is something that shaped the lives of millions.

There are three areas worth discussing in light of his passing. One, his musical legacy. Two, the bizarre claims he was “Satanic.” Three, how his death reflects the aging of rock and how it’s no longer a young man’s music.

Ozzy and Black Sabbath created heavy metal. No other band can claim that crown. There were some heavy acts before them, such as Blue Cheer and Cream, but they didn’t lacked the proper metal spirit. Unlike their contemporaries, Sabbath made much darker music. It was not something you could dance to, making it rock without the roll. Sabbath’s songs weren’t about the beach, teenage love, or taking it easy. They were about war, death, addiction, and damnation. It “scared the hoes,” as metal has done ever since.

Tony Iommi’s riffs primarily made Sabbath the founding fathers of metal. But Ozzy’s vocals played an important role, too. His banshee wailing set the tone for the heavy music. It didn’t display the sexual charisma of a Robert Plant or invite listeners to happily sing-along in pleasant repetition. His singing expressed the pain and suffering of human existence. But it wasn’t weak and or whiny like that of many goth singers. Ozzy still evinced a manly composure while singing about the horrors of life.

Great art doesn’t evoke nice days at the beach or swinging in a hammock. It depicts man and his struggles in all its ugliness. That’s what stirs the heart and soul, not crooning about ocean waves. Ozzy’s style fit the music, and metal vocals would follow his example. Even when they growled or shrieked, metal singers had their roots in Ozzy’s style.

Ozzy’s chief contributions to the world were Sabbath’s first six albums. His solo career produced bigger radio hits, but inferior albums. Much of his solo career was rather mediocre and hasn’t stood the test of the time. But the first six Sabbath albums have. Black Sabbath was the first metal album with two classics in “Black Sabbath” and “N.I.B..” But much of it is the ban trying to find out who they are and the other tracks are unremarkable blues rock. Paranoid, their second album, is where Black Sabbath hit their stride and produced their most-well known songs (“War Pigs,” “Paranoid,” and “Iron Man” are all found here). It’s a great album but my favorites are their next two: Master of Reality and Vol. 4. MoR is Sabbath’s heaviest album and extremely ahead of its time. It’s stunning it came out in 1971. But 1972’s Vol. 4 is the more consistent and stronger album. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage see Sabbath dip a bit into prog rock and expand their sound. They’re both great even if they have weaker pacing and more filler than their predecessors.

The next two albums with Ozzy were bad attempts at radio success and are forgotten for good reason.

Ozzy’s replacement, Ronnie James Dio, was the superior singer and made great albums with Tonny Iommi and co. But Dio Sabbath lacked the full magic of Ozzy Sabbath. Dio carried more of the music with his incredible work. He became the star to the detriment of Iommi’s guitarwork. Ozzy, perhaps due to his singing, forced the rest of the band to churn out a stronger, more powerful sound. That’s not to say Dio Sabbath is bad. It’s absolutely not. Dio Sabbath produced the group’s best song, the epic “The Sign of the Southern Cross.” But it still represented a step down from the legendary six albums.

I would love to do a full comparison between Ozzy and Dio at some point–both in their personalities, musical style, and body of work–but that’s beyond the scope of this article.

Not everyone loves Ozzy’s music. There were many conservative who decided to time travel back to the 1980s, do their best Pat Robertson impression, and condemn the Ozzman’s work as that of the DEVIL. This is a very silly claim when addressing Ozzy and Black Sabbath. The famous rock journalist Lester Bangs called Sabbath the first Catholic rock band. He had a point. The doom and gloom of the music could be compared to that of an old cathedral and the the grimmer aspects of Catholic teachings. The band’s lyrics weren’t extolling Satan; they warned about the dark lord.. Many of its songs, such as “War Pigs,” are implicitly Christian, promising damnation for sins in life. “After Forever” and “Lord of This World” are explicitly Christian, telling listeners to turn to Jesus to save their souls. Ozzy’s solo work also reflected this Christian attitude. Even songs dealing with the occult, such as “Mister Crowely,” are not paeans to the dark side. They’re indictments. Ozzy and the rest of the original band members were not exactly devout Christians, but they always stressed that they were believers and their faith shaped their music.

Regardless of your religious views, it’s dumb to complain about the evil of metal when we live in an age where you can turn on the radio and hear about a singer’s “wet ass pussy.” We’re not living in the era of Leave It To Beaver. Heavy metal is a far more serious and less degenerate artform than what you’d hear on the radio. It’s moronic to claim America is a bad country because Gen Xers cranked up “Crazy Train.”

When Ozzy died, we were inevitably greeted with Zoomers wondering who he was. Many Americans who know of him just remembered him as a reality TV star. I had one friend who listens to Burzum ask what band he was in. These reactions prove the declining influence of rock in American society. It was once the music of youth. Now it’s mostly enjoyed by middle-aged men. The kids aren’t listening to rock, they’re listening to rap and, increasingly, country.

If Ozzy had passed away ten or fifteen years ago, it would be THE news topic of the week. Americans knew who he was and that he was an important figure in a genre dear to the nation’s heart: rock n roll. But rock itself is dying today. There are fewer new acts. Cover bands are arguably more popular than newer bands. Pretty much all the big rock acts have been around for multiple decades and feature musicians well over 40. This was illustrated at the Black Sabbath farewell concert earlier this month. The only performer under 30 was Yungblud. The majority of acts that played have been around since at least the 1990s and boast musicians who are in their 50s and 60s.

Rock is no longer a teenager’s game anymore. Being into it, especially heavy metal, indicates you’re an adult man over 30. This is one of the reasons why rock is dying. It required youthful vitality for new innovation and energy. That won’t come from middle-aged men with responsibilities.

The death of rock also speaks to America’s demographic and cultural transformations. It was most popular when we were still at least 70 percent white and mainstream culture was much whiter. Its decline coincides with white demographic decline and the increasing diversification of our culture. Rock’s roots may have been in the blues, but it’s white music. The performers were nearly all white, and its themes and aesthetics resonated with nearly-all white audiences. It’s one of the reasons why our diverse demographics aren’t as into it.

Ozzy’s death reminds us that the age of the rockstar is dying along with him. We will no longer see greats like him any more.