The musician Ozzy Osbourne wanted to work with most: “I did ask”
There aren’t too many accomplishments that Ozzy Osbourne didn’t cross off his bucket list during his lifetime.
He had pioneered a completely new genre of music, and even if he wasn’t the biggest fan of heavy metal when he first heard it, no one could deny that he was a giant when they first heard Black Sabbath playing. He deserved to be remembered with some of the greatest artists in the world, but ‘The Prince of Darkness’ felt that many artists deserved to be held in much higher regard than he did.
Then again, there aren’t many people who could pull off being as charming as Osbourne was whenever he performed. He was still a music fan who happened to get one of the biggest jobs in the world, and when you look at some of the behind-the-scenes portions of The Osbournes, you could tell that he was just a humble guy who was thrilled to get millions of people on their feet whenever he performed.
But when talking about Osbourne’s legacy, people tend to look at the wrong things. It’s true that he is one of the craziest men in the music industry and bit the head off of a live bat, but even if he could make headlines and get himself into trouble time and time again, his musicianship was a lot better than everyone remembers. He had a ton of help from people like Randy Rhoads and Lemmy, but there was never a moment where he seemed to be phoning it in, either.
He wanted to give the audience the kind of show that they deserved, and that sense of excitement that they had for him wasn’t all that different from what he heard back in the day. He always gravitated towards hard rock music like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, but there was no replacing what The Beatles did for him when he first heard their music.
The Fab Four were already taking over the world when Osbourne was still a teenager, but he felt that he had found his calling when he first heard With the Beatles. Everything seemed to be in black and white before then, and when Osbourne heard them performing, he knew that he would have done anything to be in a band like that. Sabbath were a bit more gritty than what the Fabs were doing, but even decades down the line, Osbourne said that he would do anything to get one of the band members to perform with him.
He would eventually become friendly with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, but the greatest compliment either of them could pay him would be to have them on one of his albums, saying, “I think I would die to have a Beatle in my album. (So) I did ask him one time, but he came up with an excuse (saying he) couldn’t beat the bass player that was already on. I went, ‘Ahh, OK. Maybe you’re right.’”
And while Osbourne never did get that Fab seal of approval, it’s not like he had to lose sleep over it, knowing the people that he did get on his records. Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton are two of the greatest guitarists who ever lived, and when you listen to them playing on Osbourne’s later records, you can tell that each of them understood exactly what they were going for when bringing their bluesy touch to his songs.
If you really think about it, though, Osbourne has practically grown to the point where he could be considered almost as influential as any of The Beatles in his own right. The Fabs are always going to be the more popular band in the long run, but there isn’t a soul that has ever played metal music that hasn’t had that surge of energy run through their body when they hear ‘Crazy Train’ for the first time.
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