Sunday Music: RIP Ozzy

Classic Rock radio was THE radio choice with my dad in the car on the way to school for my entire childhood. When I say that before 3rd grade, I knew to automatically do the “ay ay ay” vocal at the beginning of “Crazy Train,” or - that probably by 5th grade I could play “Iron Man” on guitar, I’m being as serious as I am nostalgic.

The news of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing took me there this week. It took me to being a kid, knowing the music was powerful, and recognizing as I entered my mid-90s teenage years that I wanted to know more about them during that alternative moment. The stories would come with age (and better internet access). But, what started with those “he bit a head off a bat” tales, gradually evolved into a much deeper understanding and appreciation - that I don’t think we talk about enough.

What might be my favorite part of the Ozzy/Black Sabbath history is how much of an impact they had on music despite not seeming that revolutionary by modern ears. And, I get it. You don’t hear Pantera or Slayer or - even (the side project) Down or, more recently - Power Trip, or ANY of those great bands, and not think Sabbath sounds a little tame in comparison.

And you’re not wrong. BUT - then somebody tells you, like a variation on the Simpsons joke, how Black Sabbath did it first, and your world momentarily stops turning once you accept it.

On February 13, 1970 (yes, Friday the 13th, they understood the assignment), Black Sabbath’s debut record was met with critical scorn and, let’s be honest, confused hatred. My favorite critical take has to the review that the band was, “Bullshit necromancy.” I don’t have any tattoos, but if I did, one that said “bullshit necromancy” is a top contender. Clearly, what did a bunch of boys from industrial Birmingham have to offer?

Birmingham ain’t Liverpool in more ways than one, and these 4 rejects weren’t the Beatles in an even great number of ways. But, it was a new decade and these young men were there with something to say. We know all that now, looking back, because on July 5, 2025, the remaining members of the band - including Ozzy - played a final show to 42,000 live fans, plus millions more streaming. It would work out. It just couldn’t have been farther from their reality in 1970. 

I’ll say it again - why don't we talk about Black Sabbath in the same way we talk about the Beatles? Both bands fundamentally changed music forever - but only one gets treated like cultural royalty. WTF. WT-heavy metal-F.

Perspective time. Shoutout to Kris Abdelmessih and anybody else who’s as obsessed with this as I am:

The UK music charts in February 1970 had Bridge Over Troubled Water as the top album and songs like “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane” at the top of the singles charts. You don’t have to know that detail, but it helps frame the contrast Black Sabbath’s first record had when it hit. It didn’t skip across the surface. This was a cinderblock in in an alley puddle behind an abandoned coal sorting facility you promised your parents you wouldn’t be playing around.

(Birmingham and the part of PA I grew up in had a few things in common, even if it was in different decades. Maybe that’s part of why Sabbath always made sense to me. Sorry mom that we were playing there - let’s blame dad and his car-ride music though, shall we?)

When you compare Sabbath to Simon & Garfunkel, you start to get why critics would use lines like “Bullshit necromancy,” or “primitive,” and even “derivative.” Sabbath wasn’t posh. They weren’t refined. They were ugly and - Birmingham? Yeah. They weren’t London-cool. In any way - which was an advantage.

The Beatles were Liverpool sophistication meeting American pop sensibilities. They were primitive and derivative too, just more I want to hold your hand-ing and less small-animal decapitator-ing. Which is another way to say, Sabbath was Birmingham grit meeting something much darker - and that made all the difference in how they were received.

But contrast plays. And that first album got serious plays. Shockingly, to critics at least, people loved the changeup and the record shot to #8 in the UK and #23 in the US. To say the least, they just weren’t part of the usual media circles. True outliers.

If you know anything about outliers, it’s that they’re as much created by the rejection of the in-players as they are by their non-normative performances. The public critics hated them, but the less-critical public found a new voice. Word-of-mouth works wonders too. Every older brother and radio DJ who said “they don’t want you to hear this” spread the tale far and wide.

No screaming girls in American baseball stadiums needed. This one was for the darkness the world was feeling in the 1970s. Black Sabbath got their first.

In September of 1970 the band spent six days recording a follow-up record, Paranoid. There’s that old trope about how a band spends their whole life making the first record, and then has to struggle to figure out what to do or say on their second in a few months. For most bands, it’s a killer. For Black Sabbath, it was - I don’t know rocket fuel, or zombie brains, or bullshit necromancy on steroids or something.

By the end of 1970, Paranoid was in public, and the critics had a change of heart. Surprising, I know. Nobody likes to hate something when they hit top 10 twice in a year, especially when the title track was sitting at #4 in the UK almost immediately. The charts spoke. The critics eventually caught up (and, of course, took credit).

By 1970's end, they'd proven what the Beatles had proven in the 1960s decade - that you could reshape popular music entirely. The difference was Sabbath had to fight for that recognition - and honestly, they're still fighting for it fifty-five years later. And, a big part of that fight only shows up in how they helped re-shape alternative music entirely.

You can see this over and over again. How the outsider becomes the insider. How the long-shot becomes the main thing. It’s too good a story. Especially when you can watch danger transform into influence.

But this is about Ozzy. This is about how hard it was to take that stance, artistically. How hard it was, with his group of friends - Tony Iommi and his disfigured left hand that changed how he gripped the guitar, including how he tuned it down to the sludgey level he did, horror fan with an overactive imagination Geezer Butler on bass, and progressively heavy drummer Bill Ward.

Those guys created something new, brought it to the world, got mocked by critics, embraced by the underground, and changed the face of music going forward, forever.

In 2025, at what would become Ozzy’s final concert, James Hetfield stood on stage and announced "Without Sabbath, there would be no Metallica." That's the legacy the Beatles get celebrated for - reshaping everything that came after. Sabbath did the exact same thing, just louder and darker.

The guy wasn’t lying. It’s hard to imagine now, extra Lennon (bonus points!), but it’s so true.

Let’s call it. Black Sabbath was one of the most influential bands in modern music and we ought to talk about them like this, way more than we do.

Outsiders are always a step away from recreating the mainstream. It takes moments of running into art like this. It takes moments of hearing snippets of songs on the radio on the drive to school and having your dad turn it up a notch, even without saying anything, as an acknowledgment that “this is the good stuff.”

We lost a legend this week who, like those four lads from Liverpool, changed everything that came after. The only difference is how long it took the world to admit it. Let’s admit it.

RIP Ozzy Osbourne.

Some favorites:

ps. Hey Kevin Alexander / Dave Nadig / anybody who wants to - can I get a Beatles vs. Ozzy influential music list? My buddy Ryan M. wants to see this too.

pss. It’s hard to just talk about Ozzy and not get into all the guitar player stories, and Sharon managing his persona, and… good (dark/evil) gods, if I had more time this is all I’d write about for a while.