The biggest regret of Ozzy Osbourne’s career: “Too much of a gamble
By the time Ozzy Osbourne passed away, he had easily lived enough for four other musicians’ lifetimes.
‘The Prince of Darkness’ lived the epitome of the rock and roll lifestyle everywhere he went, and while there were some bumps along the way, he was more than willing to take a chance whenever the time called for it. But even with one of the most impressive second acts in rock and roll history, even Osbourne could admit that there were some things he didn’t get to check off his musical bucket list.
But, really, Osbourne could have easily abided by the original No More Tours tour in the 1990s and still be considered a legend of rock and roll. Although we would have probably been robbed of seeing his bumbling antics throughout The Osbournes in the 2000s, seeing him bow out with songs like ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ could have been a fine way to put a bow on his career. But like all musical cockroaches, Osbourne was going to keep coming back whether the public liked it or not.
While not every one of his recent albums was reinventing the wheel or anything, there was still a bit of magic to be found on his later outings as well. No one would have thought that a collaboration with Post Malone would have worked in a million years, but ‘The Prince of Darkness’ translated shockingly well into the modern age, sounding like a disembodied spirit on the tune.
And despite being one of the most decorated rock stars in the world, it’s not like Osbourne ever forgot about being starstruck. He was as much of a fan as the rest of the bands that he played with, and he could have his moments where he would tremble meeting Paul McCartney for the first time or asking Jeff Beck to work with him on some of his later albums. If you asked him to sit down a tune, though, he would have been lost in the woods.
Osbourne was the singer for a reason, but outside of those trademark bluesy vocal ad-libs, he didn’t know the first thing about music theory. He does have credits on his albums and even a composition credit on the Sabbath song ‘Who Are You’, but a lot of his strongest moments came more from the melody and the arrangement of the tune rather than focusing on what the guitar solo should sound like.
A lot of it was coming out of his head and out of his mouth, but Osbourne felt that not picking up guitar or piano was one of his biggest deficiencies, saying, “That’s one of my biggest regrets. I can play a little bit of harmonica, and that’s about it. But I have an ear for melody. I once talked to a writer and he said, ‘You can learn the piano but you most probably will lose your natural instinct for melody.’ And I said, ‘That’s too much of a gamble.’”
Given what he’s laid down on record, that composer Osbourne was talking with was absolutely right. No one was asking for him to do impressive vocal runs like Mariah Carey, and even if he did nothing else but follow one of Tony Iommi’s riffs for an entire song, it was more important for him to get a certain feeling out of his voice than worry about if he was going to impress the other vocalists in the crowd.
If anything, the fact that Osbourne managed to make so many hits without the aid of any musical instrument is an even greater accomplishment if you think about it. He could have easily learned a few basic chords and started strumming away, but chances are songs like ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Children of the Grave’ wouldn’t have sounded nearly as sinister.
