Ozzy Osbourne, RIP (End of an Era)

For more than 50 years, the late singer was the heart and soul of heavy metal

JORGEN ANGEL/REDFERNS

As you’ve likely read, Ozzy Osbourne died on Tuesday at age 75. The timing is absolutely uncanny, with the news of his passing arriving only a little over two weeks after his last-ever show, the daylong Back to the Beginning mini fest, which I wrote about at some length here.

I want to make a simple declaration up front. Ozzy’s legacy is a complicated one, given that, depending on when you were born, you may have one of three or four or five different conceptions of who he is as an artist and pop-cultural figure. But just to boil things down a little, and perhaps to cut through some of the baggage that has accumulated around him in the years since The Osbournes made him an unlikely reality-TV pioneer, I think it’s important to reiterate that he is first and foremost a profoundly great rock & roll frontman, and the one who — alongside his brilliant and forward-thinking bandmates, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — first hit upon the ways in which the idiom could harness a certain kind of bone-chilling terror and gravely prophetic intensity, linking the embryonic aesthetic of heavy metal with the existential heaviness of the blues.

The entire early-era Sabbath catalog conveys all of this, but in some ways, it is distilled even more in this full-length live concert video — recorded in 1970 in, as I understand it, Brussels, not Paris, as it’s often ID’d — which many of my friends have heard me proclaim to be the single greatest recorded document of human beings performing rock music, a sentiment I stand firmly behind. Seeing excerpts of this footage, in a vintage VHS doc called The Black Sabbath Story, Vol. 1, was what turned from a casual Sabbath enjoyer to a raving Sabbath fanatic. I think anyone who is interested in music of any kind should see it at least once in their life.

For me, the other priceless Sabbath document, beyond the LPs, is this 1975 Asbury Park show. It’s an audio-only recording, but the world-engulfing ferocity of the band during this period, performing both early material and a few gems from the then-current Sabotage, is breathtaking. I would never dispute the stone-cold-classic status of Paranoid, but I really feel that a proper dive into Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage is essential for anyone looking to truly apprehend the band’s greatness.

There’s much more to say, but let’s just sit with these transcendent moments and give thanks that we can still relive them.

A few links and recommendations:

*Here is my rundown of 12 essential Ozzy tracks, both solo and with Sabbath, for The New York Times.

*Here is a uniquely personal reflection on the man, based on firsthand up-close experience, by my friend and former Rolling Stone colleague Kory Grow, the foremost Ozzy and Sabbath authority I know. (Case in point, see his exhaustive dive on the origins of Sabbath, and heavy metal itself, as well as his RS obit.)

*I’ve been enjoying reading the emotional tributes pouring in from all corners of the rock and metal worlds. There’s a nice cross-section here, and don’t miss the heartfelt posts from avant-metal luminary Stephen O’Malley and the surviving members of Rush.

*Lastly, I want to mention that Ozzy’s memoir, simply titled I Am Ozzy, written with Chris Ayres and published in 2010 is an excellent read, candid and funny in the vein of the Miles Davis autobiography.

Thank you for everything, Ozzy Osbourne!