I can't say I'm such a diehard fan, that I have posters, replicas, memorabilia or anything else in my room, however, I do have some music on CD. Admittedly, I remember my junior year of college, I had one of those centerfold type posters that came out of one of the imported Brit music magazines. I don't remember what the article or which magazine it was, but the poster happened to be of a young Ozzy, probably around the start of Black Sabbath. It was on my wall with other (more current) artists of the time. I collected a fair share of music posters at that point, and they were all from the likes of Uncut, Mojo, random cut outs from Rolling Stone, Spin and some others (like the unrelated Interview). The imports were how I got to hear some new music and I actually still have all the monthly discs, to this day. It's not an enormous amount, but it's plentiful enough, even though I've thrown out the magazine it came with, a long time ago.
Moving on.
Some of the things that I am familiar with Ozzy are the more "known" facts: he's from working class Birmingham, England. He was born after World War II and due to his dyslexia, didn't have a great education. Ozzy was an avid Aston Villa fan.
Due to his rise in fame, recently the city of Birmingham has worked with the family and there is a museum installation where some of his personal effects are - music memorabilia, artwork, sound and vision items, and it's being held for public viewing until September at the local art gallery. I know from listening to the Osbourne family podcast, they were thinking of opening their own museum of sorts, unless this exhibition is what they were talking about. The podcast ended in mid 2024 and the exhibition opened July 2025.
Honestly, I would say I'm enough of a fan, that I could sing along to some of the Black Sabbath songs (as well as Ozzy's solo stuff). I might not be able to tell you the exact track title or year it came out, but I might know the tune. I know Ronnie James Dio replaced Ozzy in Black Sabbath, and I went to see the hologram tour of Dio a few years ago (I posted about it in my blog). That was interesting, but I know less about Dio, so most of the songs played were over my head. The graphics shown on the jumbotron were okay, and it was interesting to see some of his original bandmates be the ones to take the lead on the music. My review for that night is a link under "My Back Pages" so that would be another read later on. You just need to find it.
I've seen episodes of the Osbournes television show that aired in the early 2000s on MTV. That show was a mess, but it served as an introduction to and jump off for other reality shows. It spawned a lot of other series and it's amazing how there wasn't much to watch prior to this, regarding celebrities and their families being recorded twenty-four-seven and edited for television. I think there was a podcast episode where this was even referenced - how no one else was doing that type of programming and after the series ended, there was a boom in other shows. Although there were off shoots of family shows being aired prior to the aughts.
I'm struggling to write more because I don't have enough to say about Ozzy. He and his family have struggled with drugs, alcohol, various types of abuse, and have had a lot of negativity in their lives, but yet, the last concert he did (earlier this month) was back in his hometown and they raised thousands of dollars for various charities (Parkinson's research and local children's hospitals). The concert was over 10 hours long and featured so many bands, that it was a very good show, based on news articles and posted videos. One other thing that came out of that weekend was Ozzy's daughter Kelly got engaged to her partner, Sid Wilson, who is in Slipknot (they have a toddler together as well).
I know the band Slipknot, kind of. I know their logo, have seen them wearing masks. I've seen the popular image of their self titled 1999 album "Slipknot". One of the singers is a guy named Corey Taylor. I can't tell you what their biggest song is, but the only one I can name would be "Snuff", which is track 11 off their 2008 album, "All Hope Is Gone" (I had to look that information up). This song might be the only individual track I have (downloaded) of the band.
Ozzy, who is spoken of as "The Godfather of Metal" really has had a trickle down effect on a lot of bands that came after his. You don't realize how many artists are out there, who are lumped in the metal genre or have metal adjacent songs.
For a man who grew up 100 miles south of "The Four Lads from Liverpool" (and liking them - using them as the catalyst for getting into music), he sure changed the course of his history and what we listen to, as well as allowing the more darker tunes to be more mainstream.
Godspeed, Ozzy. May you finally get the rest you need.
Cheers;
See also (magazine links via Amazon):
* Uncut Magazine
* Rolling Stone Magazine
* Spin Magazine
* Interview Magazine
Ozzy (various links via Amazon):
* Dio
* Slipknot
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Thanks for sharing!