Black Sabbath

Solo success

Depression now fueled Osbourne's drug and alcohol problems, and his divorce from his first wife Thelma and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder piled even more stress onto the singer. Despite these difficulties, Osbourne attempted to launch a solo career, managed by Sharon Arden, who was Black Sabbath manager Don Arden's daughter. With her help, Osbourne was able to gain a recording deal with Jet Records, then a subsidiary of CBS. However, Sharon herself recounts that the band was lucky to be able to record and tour under the modest financial deal received from Jet.

Tragedy strikes

In March 1982, while in Florida for the follow-up album Diary of a Madman tour, and a week away from playing Madison Square Garden in New York City, a light aircraft carrying guitarist Randy Rhoads crashed while performing low passes over the band's tour bus. The pilot (also the tour bus driver) who was apparently trying to kill his wife ^{[citation needed]} who had been standing next to the bus (also part of the Osbourne entourage) clipped the parked tour bus and crashed into a nearby house, killing himself, Rhoads, and the band's hairdresser, Rachel. Allegedly the pilot had cocaine in his blood. His pilots license was also expired by many years. ^{[citation needed]} Osbourne awoke from the tour bus and managed to save the life of the man living in the house, but those on the plane died on impact. Osbourne subsequently fell into a deep depression following the death of his close friend and bandmate. The record company gave Osbourne a break from performing to mourn for his late band member, but Ozzy stopped work for only one week.

Controversy

Recovery

In the 1980s and 1990s, Osbourne's career was an effort on two fronts: continuing to make music without Rhoads, and becoming sober. The 1981 concerts were recorded with a live album in mind. Entitled Speak of the Devil, known in the United Kingdom as Talk of the Devil, was originally planned to consist of live recordings from 1981, primarily from Osbourne's solo work. With news of Black Sabbath also about to release a live album titled "Live Evil" however, Osbourne and Sharon decided to pre-empt his former band's efforts, and the album ended up consisting entirely of Black Sabbath cover material, recorded with Gillis, bassist Rudy Sarzo, and drummer Tommy Aldridge. In the same Guitar Player interview where Brad Gillis discussed how he came to play for Ozzy, he discussed the live album, and admitted that everyone in the band wanted to rework some parts, but were not given the opportunity. Speak of the Devil was musically left alone.

Commercial success

While very successful as a heavy metal act through the 1980s, Osbourne sustained commercial success into the 1990s, starting with 1991's No More Tears, which enjoyed much radio and MTV exposure. It also initiated a practice of bringing in outside composers to help pen Osbourne's solo material, instead of relying solely upon his recording ensemble to write and arrange the music. The platinum selling, top-10 No More Tears album was mixed by veteran rock producer Michael Wagener, who also mixed the Live and Loud album which followed in 1993. At this point Osbourne expressed his fatigue with the process of touring, and proclaimed his "retirement", which was to be short-lived. Osbourne's entire CD catalogue was remastered and reissued in 1995. Also that year, he released Ozzmosis and went on stage again, dubbing his concert performances "The Retirement Sucks Tour". A greatest hits package, The Ozzman Cometh was issued in 1997.

TV show

Osbourne garnered still greater celebrity status by the unlikely success of his own brand of reality television. The Osbournes, a series featuring the domestic life of Osbourne and his family (wife Sharon, children Jack and Kelly, but not his oldest daughter Aimee, who declined to participate), has turned into one of MTV's greatest hits. It premiered on March 5, 2002, and the final episode aired March 21, 2005. It should be noted that Howard Stern was the individual who originally proposed the idea for this show.

Recent news

In 2002, Osbourne and wife Sharon were invited to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner by Fox News Channel correspondent Greta Van Susteren for that year's event. Bush noted Ozzy's presence by making a couple jokes such as: "The thing about Ozzy is he's made a lot of big hit recordings: 'Party With the Animals'; 'Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath'; 'Face in Hell'; 'Black Skies and Bloodbath in Paradise.' Ozzy, Mom loves your stuff."

Trivia

• Osbourne has shown symptoms of a mild hearing loss, as evidenced in the television show, The Osbournes, as he often asks his family members to repeat what they say. This is possibly as a result of being exposed to dangerous noise levels at music venues.
• Osbourne is a supporter of Aston Villa Football Club, having been raised in Lodge Road, only a few hundred yards from the club's ground.
• Ozzy Osbourne suffers from dyslexia and attention deficit disorder
• In 1982, during the Diary tour where Ozzy bit into a bat onstage, he was required to receive a series of rabies vaccination injections as a preventative measure against the disease. The treatments caused some temporary hair loss, and as a result Ozzy shaved his head. At one point there were a large number of photos taken by the media where Ozzy is bald and posing wearing military fatigues and holding various weapons. At another point, he admitted to wearing a blonde wig, coloured "hooker blonde", and stated he would begin a show with it on, then pull it off at another point in the concert, to the complete surprise of fans. Such photos were used in music magazines at the time, but are now rarely seen.
• The main chords and melody of the song Diary of a Madman were created while Randy Rhoads was teaching a student classical guitar. Randy would hold guitar lessons while the band was touring around the United States. Ozzy was asleep and was awakened by the ongoing guitar lesson. He ran into the room, happily yelling at Randy something like; "What is that? What is that you're playing?!" It's brilliant, I'm taking it!" Randy tried to explain it was already a written classical part, but Ozzy would have none of it.
• Ozzy made more than a few well known rock bands famous by touring with them as opening acts, and supporting their musical styles and success. In 1984, the opening band for the Bark at the Moon tour was Mötley Crüe, touring their second album, "Shout at the Devil". During The Ultimate Sin tour, Ozzy toured with Metallica, supporting their latest effort Master of Puppets. Others include Soundgarden during their Badmotorfinger tour, and Korn, during their ADIDAS tour.
• Osbourne appeared at Wrestlemania 2 in 1986, accompanying his fellow countrymen the British Bulldogs to the ring for their WWF Tag Team Championship match, along with their manager, "Captain" Lou Albano.
• Ozzy Osbourne's alcohol abuse and misadventures resulting from his alcoholism came to a very serious peak in 1989 after an assault on his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne.
• Ozzy Osbourne has been parodied by Horatio Sanz on Saturday Night Live, most memorable is an SNL Celebrity Jeopardy! (Saturday Night Live) , in which Horatio says the first lines from Crazy Train. Sharon has also been parodied on SNL celebrity jeopardy.
• He was also parodied when The Osbournes was poked fun at frequently on the BBC satire program, Dead Ringers. A notable occasion include when Ozzy was portrayed as being the complete opposite of his usual on-screen persona from The Osbournes: rather than hesitating when speaking and often mumbling, he has a thick Oxford-style accent. Ozzy has himself appeared alongside his Dead Ringers impersonation for Children in Need and in various BBC adverts.
• Ozzy appears in the movie Little Nicky, as a kind of deus ex machina character.
• A multiplayer mode playable character named Lenny Oldburn is in the game TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Lenny looks and talks like Ozzy Osbourne with a bio indicating a heavy metal history (the character shows up in story mode, albeit as a different character—a one-time scientist who had lost his mind)

Other information

Public image

Osbourne's perceived attitudes and behaviour earned him nicknames such as "The Madman" (in the 1980s, thanks to the commercial success of Diary of a Madman), "The Godfather of Heavy Metal" (in the 1990s, due to his long-lasting contribution to rock music) and "Prince of Darkness" (in the 2000s, as he started calling himself).

Statistics

Despite media criticism, Osbourne's on-stage charisma helped make Black Sabbath a major success, with the landmark album Paranoid reaching number 1 in UK and selling 8 million copies during the 1970s. The four Black Sabbath founders are widely considered the creators of heavy metal style. Since 1969, the band sold over 70 million albums worldwide, including over 25 million in the United States; their most successful album, Paranoid, achieved quadruple platinum status in the US in 1995.

Favourite rock albums

In June 2004, British newspaper The Observer asked Osbourne to name his top ten favourite British rock albums of all time. He named:

Discography

See: Ozzy Osbourne discography

1. ^ Appleyard, Bryan. "Blizzard of Oz", The Sunday Times Magazine, November 27, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
2. ^ Dodd, P, The Book of Rock, Pavilion, 2001, ISBN 1-86205-292-1

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