Ozzy Osbourne: A Career With a Class

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Osbourne’s Early Life
Music Life
“Suicide Solution” and the Lawsuit
Osbourne’s New Partners & Reunions
Financial Breakthrough
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Ozzy Osbourne, born John Michael in Aston Birmingham in December 3, 1948 is an established English singer who has seen his career span for about four decades (Wall 6). Osbourne’s career began to shine when he became the lead vocalist of the Black Sabbath, the British pioneer heavy metal band and later excelled further as a multi-platinum solo career which many observers believe was the beginning of the heavy metal revolution. Some of his compositions like the Prince of Darkness led to him being dubbed the “Godfather of Heavy Metal” (Wall 7). His stardom reached new heights in 2000 when he began to shine in his own television reality show, The Osbourne that featured Sharon, his wife cum manager, and Kelly and Jack (two of their three children). USA Today quoted Osbourne in August 2008 saying that his intention is to retire from his musical career after producing two more albums (Reynolds: par.5)

Osbourne’s Early Life

Born to a toolmaker father Jack and a car component worker Lillian, Osbourne did suffer from learning difficulties when it was reported that he was suffering from dyslexic hence making his school life very difficult, subsequently finding music the better option for him (Wall 8). Consequently, he participated in school plays and music concerts at both Prince Albert Road Junior School and Birch field Road Secondary School, Perry Bar, and later became a great fan of The Beetles when he reached 14 (8). His school life came to a halt when he dropped out of school at the age of 15 and worked as a laborer at various construction sites, where he learnt plumbing (8). He also worked in other places where he was mostly taken as apprentice toolmaker, and laborer at a car factory.

Music Life

Together with Birchfield Road School classmate Tony Iommi, the two formed a band known as Psychedelic Rock where he became the lead singer and took the band to the next level of popularity. They decided to distinguish themselves from the rest of the rock singers by adopting their own style known as heavy blues, that was laced with some gloomy lyrics (Moreman 5). Their band later adopted other names like the Polka Tulk and Earth. However, sudden turn of events happened when one day at the rehearsal, the two noticed a huge crowd of people on line weighting for a horror cinema that was about to kick off (6). One of the members, Geezer Butler (the band Bassist) noticed how the people at the event were curious to watch horror film, Mario Bava, which was directed by the Black Sabbath (6). This was the birth of the “Black Sabbath” style and the band that defined Osbourne’s career in later life.

Black Sabbath

The band developed and expanded swiftly despite the relatively little investment put in it by the record label, Warner Bros. Records. This success was attributed to the combined efforts of Osbourne’s eerie vocals, Tony Iommi’s guitar riffs and the unmatched lyrics of Geezer Butler’s, which produced hit records such paranoid and eponymous (Sue 29). However, in 1979, Osbourne got a rude shock when he was fired from the Black Sabbath band due to drug abuse, even though every member of the band allegedly did drugs, his case was considered an isolated one due to what was termed overuse and abuse (112).

Life after Black Sabbath: Solo Career

In the same year after being fired from Black Sabbath, Osbourne decided to rehearse with Necromandus Band, paving for him the way for launching a solo project dubbed Blizzard of Ozz, in the early 80s and thus became a solo singer (Weber & Prato 9). He was assisted by his new manager Sharon Arden, who was later to become his wife. The first members of the band were comprised of Lee Kerslake as the band drummer, Bob Daisley (Bassist cum lyricist) and Randy Rhoads (guitarist). In actual sense, the Blizzard of Ozz record brand was wholly associated with Osbourne the person even though it was largely written by Daisley and Rhoads, with the heavy metal brand fans buying the record with a lot of enthusiasm, creating a record sale (Weber & Prato: par.9). Osbourne’s partners, Daisley and Rhoades later produced a record hitting masterpiece known as Diary of a Madman, which Daisley wrote and Rhoades contributed his guitar skills (11).

Osbourne lost his great band member Rhoads in 1982 in an aircraft accident when they were on a tour of Florida as a follow-up to their Diary of a Madman. Rhoads death took Osbourne into a serious depression and the record company acted by giving him a break to mourn, only to return to work only after a week (Sue 87). Rhoades was replaced by Brad Gillis after an audition in a hotel room headed by Osbourne, thus helping the band crew to complete the tour. The tour continuation culminated into a release of a new album, Speak of the Devil that was recorded at Ritz (New York) (Sue 88). Osbourne again facilitated the release of live tribute album, Dee to honor Randy.

Later Career Life

In most of his career life in the music, Osbourne concentrated more as a solo musician in 1980s and 1990s after the death of Rhoads. According to Sue (91), Osbourne’s career transformed into two main fronts, “work without Rhoads and becoming sober”. Speak of the Devil, popularly known in the UK as Talk of the Devil was Osbourne’s solo effort that was meant to consist of live records from the 1981. However, when it emerged that Osbourne’s former band Black Sabbath were also on their way to release a live album, Live Evil , he and his manager Sharon decided to record their release with entirely Black Sabbath cover material, featuring Gillis, Rudy Sarzo (Bassist), and Tommy Aldridge (drummer) (Sue 92). Osbourne acted as a backup guest vocalist in 1982 in the Was/Was Not pop dance song “Shake Your Head (Lets Go to Bed)” with Madonna as the vocalist (Weber & Prato 93). This song was later redone and released in the album Was/Was Not album of the 90s, climbing up the pop chart in Europe for historical longer time.

“Suicide Solution” and the Lawsuit

A series of lawsuits were brought against Osbourne in 1986 when it was alleged that one of his hi songs, Suicide Solution influenced the increased suicide cases among the teenagers in the United States due to its “subliminal lyrics” (Weber & Prato 94). However, Osbourne won the cases when the court observed that it is not possible to hold a musician liable for the listeners or fans’ response (94). Again the interpretation of the song was that it was about alcohol abuse and the suicide solution title was just but an artist’s play of the words and Osbourne later acknowledged that the song was inspired by a singer friend’s death from alcohol abuse, and that solution part of the title was about alcohol as a solution to problems people face and as a chemical solution (96). But Bob Daisley contradicts Osbourne, saying that he purely wrote the song as a way of expressing his concerns about Osbourne’s life with drug indulgences (97).

Osbourne’s New Partners & Reunions

In 1987, Osbourne had to part ways with his long time colleague, Lee, ostensibly due to their long time brewing differences concerning music. Meanwhile he continued to with his music when he commemorated Rhoads fifth anniversary with a song Tribute, which was recorded with the 1981 films featuring Rhoads, despite his total dependency on drugs Sue 102. In the process, he got a new partner, guitarist Zakk Wylde to replace Rhoads in 1988. Since then, Wylde ahs proved more than an ordinary asset to Osbourne as he has endured the longest career with him up to date (102). Together with the support from Drummer Castillo, Sinclair as a keyboard person and Daisley as the Bassist and co-writer, Osbourne composed and performed No Rest for the Wicked (104). The artist later re- united with his erstwhile band mate from Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, where they performed a song titled Just Say Ozzy and the two continued to tour and make stage presence together throughout their tours (106). This was followed by Osbourne’s debut performance at the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989.

The eve of 1990s was the beginning of Osbourne’s financial success more that 1980s when he mainly had a lot of publicity through his heavy metal style (Weber & Greg 11). This was started with NO More Tears of 1991 that got a lot of airplay in many live television shows and radio, notably MTV. The artist also began a different approach to music by adopting a style where he brought in a practice of incorporating composers from outside rather than relying solely on his own style of composition and arrangement of music (12). No More Tears album was mixed by one of the most celebrated rock producer Michael Wagener, who also mixed Live and Loud album in 1993 (13). This album received a platinum rating in four occasions and was ranked 10^th on the 1993’s Billboard rock charts, and later the following year, the rock star received the first ever Grammy award for his track in the album, I Don’t Want to Change the World as the 1994’s “Best Metal Performance” (13)

Osbourne’s attempt to retire form music was not to be when he later claimed that “retiring sucks” in his successive tours (Reynolds 7). His song No More Tours, a generic from No More Tears album was the culmination of his retirement speculation. Before he and his band mates began the tour, the new compatriot was tasked to pay Bass guitar while Kevin Jones was to handle the keyboards since Sinclair was committed with The Cult’s tours (Reynolds 5). It is in the year 1995 that saw Osbourne’s entire CD catalogue being redone and reproduced and the subsequent release of Ozzmosis that culminated into stage performance concert which was dubbed “The Retirement Sucks Tours” (Reynolds 19). The Ozzmosis team saw the reunion between Osbourne and his former band mates and some other experienced industry members, comprised of Wylde Butler (formerly of Black Sabbath), former Bad English member Steve Vai, drummer Deen Castronovo, and the return of Sinclair (21). In 1996, butler and Castronovo parted ways with Osbourne and this gave way for new members, Mark Bordin of Faith No More fame and Robert Trujillo (formerly of Suicidal Tendencies) who later did an all time hit package The Ozzman Cometh, released in 1997. This reunion has been consistent ever since and the teams have been performing together although.

Financial Breakthrough

Despite numerous hits and huge stage receptions in Osbourne’s performances, the popularity did not translate to an equal measure of financial success as expected until late 1990s. His greatest financial success came when Osbourne launched a venture dubbed “Ozzfest”, that was manged by his wife cum manager Sharon (Weber & Greg 13). This venture became an instant hit with metal fans, generating an instant financial breakthrough as well as promoting some of the present popular groups such as the Incubus and Slipknot to the levels of unprecedented success in late 1990s and 2000s (15). This success was heightened by the reunion with some of the re formed members of Black Sabbath who played key roles in the Ozzfest Tour of 1997. It is estimated that the Ozzfest has been attended by a total of 5 million people, generating an estimated income of US$ 100 million (17). Ozzfest has seen Osbourne as the only ever hard rock and heavy metal artist to reach a whooping $50 million the sales of merchandise (Weber & Greg 18; Sue 15).

However, his musical success was not all time bed of roses as his attempt to come back to serious recording in 2001 with Down to Earth and Live at Budokan albums did not yield much success as expected (Sue 27). The superstar was involved in a serious accident on 8^th December, 2003, where he reportedly broke his ribs, collar bone, and neck vertebra (29). While receiving treatment on his hospital bed, Osbourne got the news that he had been crowned the first ever UK number one single, Changes, a duet of the Black Sabbath ballad (31). This meant that he broke the all time record as that longest period between an artist’s first UK chart appearance and their first number one hit, creating a gap of 33 years in between the records (Sue 34; Moreman 31).

The onset of 2005 saw the release of Prince of Darkness, Born to Be Wild and Miss Piggy and the same year is when he incorporated in his music some component of songs from his most valued and favorite bands such as The Beetles, John Lennon, David Bowie and many others. The following year of 2007 saw the release of Black Rain (Reynolds 10).

Conclusion

Although many bands headed by individuals like Alice Cooper and Judas Priest have succeed and shown earned names from their fans and media in general, Ozzy Osbourne has had one of the most successful and at the same time controversial career in his category of music. No one can refute that Osbourne has created an unmatched impact on the heavy metal style. Even though many critics observe that the artist is not blessed with good voice, they however acknowledge that he knows how to compensate for that with good ears and stage antics during live performance. Controversy aside, Osbourne has proved himself in the international arena as a superstar, with the ability to sell millions of records while at the same time acquiring new record fans at every performance (Reynolds 19)

Works Cited

Moreman, Christopher M. Devil Music and the Great Beast: Ozzy Osbourne, Aleister Crowley and the Christian Right . Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Department of Religious Studies and Anthropology, The University of Saskatchewan. 2003. Web.

Reynolds, Simon. “Ozzy retiring after two more albums”, Digital Spy, 2008. Web.

Sue, Crawford. Ozzy Unauthorized, Nee York: Sage Printers, 2003.

Wall, Mick. Diary of a Madman – The Official Biography. Zomba Books, 1986.

Weber, Barry & Prato Greg, Ozzy Osbourne Bibliography, 2007. Web.

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