The albums Ozzy Osbourne made as revenge on Black Sabbath
Ozzy Osbourne was never one to go quietly when he was fired from Black Sabbath.
It might have been heartbreaking to see one of the biggest names in metal suddenly be let go from his band, but there was no chance that he was going to become a walking casualty. He needed to pick himself up and start all over again, but the story of ‘The Prince of Darkness’ is the dark phoenix rising from the ashes.
Then again, Osbourne was going to need some help if he was going to become a solo star. He hadn’t written a ton of tunes on his own even when he was in Sabbath, and since most of his days outside the band were spent trying to drink his troubles away, he eventually found a way forward musically the second that he heard what Randy Rhoads could do on guitar.
And as much as people like to build a hateful wall around Sharon Osbourne, she actually doesn’t get the credit she deserves for helping him out of his stupor. It’s a tragedy knowing that Osbourne is no longer among the living nowadays, but if Sharon hadn’t been there to help him through his turmoil in the 1980s, there’s a good chance that he might have either drank himself to death or perished in an even worse way.
But when Blizzard of Ozz was released, you would have sworn that he hadn’t lost a step since his time with Sabbath ended. Tony Iommi already started heading in a new direction with Ronnie James Dio, but one of the reasons why Osbourne’s music sounded so good was because it managed to sound happy. It’s not like he was going to be singing wholesome songs about frolicking through fields or anything, but ‘Crazy Train’ was a far more upbeat tune than anything he made with Sabbath.
And even when he started branching out a bit further, you could hear what Rhoads wanted to do with the band’s sound going forward. ‘Diary of A Madman’ is already a twisted epic throughout its runtime, but looking at how much Rhoads was borrowing from classical and jazz progressions, Osbourne could have begun to work on more sophisticated tunes than anything he tried in his old outfit.
While he had a blast making the record, Osbourne did admit that he still had a chip on his shoulder the whole time as well, saying, “Those first two albums were my revenge because I was fired from Sabbath. I thought, ‘Man, I’ll show them what it’s about!’ I always come out with my best when my back’s against the wall. It’s always when the luxury and financial rewards come piling in that I begin to lose it.”
Although the tone would change drastically once Rhoads was killed in an airplane accident, it’s not like Osbourne wanted to get any less sinister, either. Bark at the Moon did have more of a cartoonish element to the cover, but even with someone like Jake E Lee at the helm, it’s hard to look at his later work as a misstep, either, especially when he had his second wind on albums like No More Tears.
The hits kept coming, but it’s safe to say that the bad blood had long faded after reuniting with Sabbath on a few occasions. His solo career may have started off as a way to spite his old mates, but when listening to tunes like ‘Over the Mountain’, you’re not hearing someone sounding bitter. This was a musician building up their legacy all over again.
