| Inimitable vocalist Ozzy Osbourne (birth name “John Michael”) was born on December 3, 1948 in Birmingham. One of the founders of the legendary group “Black Sabbath”, Ozzy, did not agree with the complicated experiments, taken up by the leader and main composer of this group Tony Iommi in the late 1970s and left his colleagues in 1979. He left England for good and formed a base in California (San Francisco) under the world famous rock club “Win-terlend Promotions". Ozzy invited bass player from “Rainbow” along with keyboard player Don Airey (who before, as well as Ozzy, worked in “Black Sabbath”) and the drummer was invited from “Uriah Heep”. It appeared to be a difficult task to pick a suitable guitarist. Randy Rhoads, who was a big fan of “Black Sabbath”, became the guitarist. In the first days of acquaintance, Randy showed his collection of his most different acoustic and electric guitars to Osbourne, who was touched especially by the fact that Randy, unlike many hard guitarists played from music.
Soon, the group was formed with the working name “Law” and started rehearsals. In the middle of 1980, the debut album of the ensemble, which was named after its inspirer and main author by the approval of entire collective, was released. The disc had a strong resemblance to early “Black Sabbath”, but many new ideas also appeared in the album. For example, the ballad “Goodbye to romance”, where Ozzy proved his worth as a classical melodist, sounded in an innovative way.
The next disc, which is considered to be the best to date in the discography of the singer, was written in the middle of 1981 and already in little updated composition: Excellent musicians Tommy Aldridge (drummer) and Rudy Sarzo (bassist) performed in place of Lee Kerslake and Bob Daisley, who returned back to “Uriah Heep”. Album “Diary of a Madman” was even more like “Black Sabbath” during their blossoming days (1973-1976); up to the minutest of details, the musicians reproduced “spirit” from the old group of Ozzy, though they made this on the basis of absolutely new musical material, due to which the album was awarded first place in Britain and was second for a year in the USA.
The triumphal procession was suspended due to the tragic death of Ozzy’s friend, guitarist Randy Rhoads. Coming out of depression, Ozzy returned onto the stage in the end of 1982. Along with Aldridge, Sarzo and new guitarist Brad Gillis (from the group “Rough Cutt”), Ozzy has written a double concert album “Speak of the Devil”, which contained only songs from the repertoire of “Black Sabbath”. Each song of this album was authored by Ozzy Osbourne, but according to copyrights for this production, his name always stood fourth after Iommi, Butler and Ward... This double concert became the reason for the rift between Ozzy and Tony Iommi, who considered that Ozzy, not being the main composer of the songs from “Black Sabbath” had no right to create the sensation on the basis of these songs.
At the end of 1983, Ozzy released his third album under the name “Bark at the Moon”. It was the first album, where all musical (except for acoustic backing) and text material was written personally by Ozzy without participation of his assistants. The album turned out to be irreproachably melodious. Here, Ozzy often addresses to traditional European sonatina classics and the string orchestra of Lewis and Clarke (earlier it was associated for a long time with “Electric Light Orchestra “) helped in several items of the ensemble. The song “So tired” was a super hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
The album of 1988 became one of the most famous in the discography of Ozzy along with discs from 1981 and 1983. Again, preference pertaining to style was given to old "Black Metal” and the pleasure of admirers had no boundaries and held the top position in many prestigious charts.
Ozzfest and his value for heavy music:
The Ozzfest-festival was founded by Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzfest organizes tours worldwide; System Of A Down, Slipknot, Judas Priest, Slayer, Superjoint Ritual, Dimmu Borgir and other “hard” groups took part alongside “Black Sabbath” during Ozzfest in 2004. The young son of Ozzy, Jack Osbourne played a significant role in the growth of the festival, who started to accomplish the functions of program director from a specific time.
The serial “The Osbournes”:
From May 19, 2002, MTV aired a documentary television serial “The Osbournes" in England and Ireland about Ozzy Osbourne and his family.... According to the format, this was a “cultural phenomenon”, presented as the real filming of life of the Osbourne family filled with small hardships and happiness, but in reality, some episodes with the mysterious disappearances or discoveries of things, unexpected arrivals\departures of guests etc can be doubted. Probably, a careful clandestine adaptation could have occurred. The family Ozzy appeared on screen as certain relatives of the Simpson's and the role of the main clown fell to the old rocker, who tirelessly worked for thirty years to create the image of a “really famous heavy metal musician”. |
The 'Godfather of Heavy Metal' and the 'Prince Of Darkness' Ozzy Osbourne turns 60 today. Ozzy started as frontman of pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and eventually achieved even greater success going solo. Ozzy's career has now spanned four decades, and he revolutionized the heavy metal genre. We wish Ozzy a very happy 60th birthday, and many more great songs and albums!
