The one rock band Ozzy Osbourne called out of his league: “They outshone us”
Ozzy Osbourne never envisioned himself being a musical god when he first started making music.
Black Sabbath were only trying to make hard rock and roll like the rest of their influences, but when looking at their track record, there’s no question that heavy metal rests at their feet based on what they had created together. ‘The Prince of Darkness’ was out there to make some of the most frightening music ever conceived, but he also understood when a band was kicking their ass every single time they went onstage.
But you can’t really expect to invent a genre and not have people try and copy you. Some of the best songs that Sabbath ever made could only have come from Tony Iommi’s guitar, but there was a whole lot for people to explore when they tuned down that low. Iommi was the first one to suggest what heavy music was going to sound like, and some of the biggest names in hard rock were going to try and shock people by any means necessary.
You have to remember that a band like Kiss were already on the other side of the world making some of the most extravagant stage shows, but whereas Gene Simmons looked like a demon whenever he performed, he was still playing traditional rock and roll compared to what Sabbath were doing. It didn’t have the same kind of power that Iommi, but after spending time trying to sound like other bands, Sabbath were having a bit of an identity crisis when working on Technical Ecstasy.
Osbourne didn’t really enjoy singing with the band anymore, and when they went out on tour, they made the grave mistake of booking a band like Van Halen to be their opener. Blue Oyster Cult seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Sabbath in many ways, but even if Eddie had a lot more flash behind his playing, the power that Van Halen had left Osbourne with his jaw on the floor when he first heard them.
There was no one that could touch them at the time, and Osbourne was shellshocked to find a band that was miles ahead of what they were doing, saying, “I just couldn’t believe it. (Eddie Van Halen) made it look so fucking easy. They outshone us. They blew us off the stage. Eddie was a great guy. He was always nice with me. He was a lovely man to be around, and Alex (Van Halen). I took all of them down to my local pub… That was fucking great.”
Both bands may have been some of the most unassuming legends in rock and roll at the time, but you could clearly see where the genre was heading. Van Halen made every single show feel like a party, and while Osbourne took exception to David Lee Roth stealing a few of his moves, it wasn’t going to matter when they were able to make some of the most daring rock and roll songs ever made.
The tapping would have been one thing, but the biggest advantage that Van Halen had was making heavy metal look fun. Not many people would have put them in the metal category at the time, but considering how heavy some of their tunes could get at the time, they were the spokesmen for people that loved heavy metal but still wanted the chance to have some fun every now and again.
That’s a tough needle for anyone to thread, but Osbourne knew that Van Halen were doing everything much better than Sabbath were. And since ‘The Prince of Darkness’ would be out the door only a few albums later to start his solo career, he could easily watch from the sidelines as Van Halen continued to go from strength to strength every single time they put out something new.
