“Incredible”: Ozzy Osbourne on the Eric Clapton of keyboard players
What does it take to be a truly great lead singer? You needn’t look any further than Ozzy Osbourne for your answer. The music of Black Sabbath is truly something to behold as the guitar, bass, and drums are all heavy and doom-laden, exactly what heavy metal is built upon; however, they likely wouldn’t have reached the heights they did were it not for the leading ability of Ozzy Osbourne.
There are a couple of things that separate him from some of the other singers out there. The first is his actual voice. He has incredibly dynamic vocals, which are important within the band because of the various subjects and topics that they touch upon.
Consider Geezer Butler’s explanation of the song ‘Paranoid’. “Basically, it’s just about depression, because I didn’t really know the difference between depression and paranoia,” he explained, “It’s a drug thing; when you’re smoking a joint you get totally paranoid about people, you can’t relate to people. There’s that crossover between the paranoia and get when you’re smoking dope and the depression afterwards.”
In addition to these kinds of songs, though, there were Sabbath tracks that touched upon war, such as ‘War Pigs’, and mythology, such as ‘Black Sabbath’ and ‘The Wizard’. You need someone with a voice like Osbourne’s who can take on all of these different subject matters, magic, sadness, protest, confusion, addiction, and deliver them in a way that feels genuine and complements the band’s music.
It wasn’t only that, though; you also had the fact that Osbourne was incredibly charismatic. People liked to watch him and felt entertained by him, whether he was on stage or off it. He also put on a live show, which was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, as some of his antics were considered a bit too grim for public consumption.
Charisma and talent aside, though, one thing that Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t was a good instrumentalist. His voice has always been his instrument, and it’s very rare we have ever seen him play anything on stage. Osbourne had admitted that he attempted to play the guitar but ended up becoming frustrated when he wasn’t immediately good at it.
“I ended up fucking busting the guy over the head with the fucking guitar. Put your right finger on the, you know,” he said, “I had this one guy teaching me, he’s very good at. He told me I wonder how I can pick up the guitar and play but don’t have to go through the bullshit of learning it. You know, I, I, I want I I’m a run before I can walk, you know? Like I’m Eric Clapton.”
When talking about Eric Clapton, he ended up discussing Rick Wakeman, who he said was one of the best instrumentalists he had ever witnessed. “Rick Wakeman is, he’s incredible man,” admitted Osbourne, “I love that guy. I love him.”
Osbourne was happy playing in Sabbath at the time of the interview but admitted that if he ever had to form another band, he would want it to be with Wakeman. It’s certainly an interesting duo to consider.
