The rock album Ozzy Osbourne “never gets tired of hearing”
Ozzy Osbourne is rock royalty. As both a musical and a general pop culture figure, Osborne has endured as a key figure since the 1970s. As part of Black Sabbath, he sits at the top of the food chain, but there is another band that he holds up as the greatest.
From the first moment he stepped onto the scene, Osbourne was a sensation. His wild frontman antics, both on and off stage, quickly earned him a reputation as an act the world needed to see. Black Sabbath broke out in the wake of the 1960s and early ‘70s classic rock heyday, a time when crowds seemed to be calling out for something heavier and darker once the hippie haze had settled; the Birmingham band were there to fill the gap.
Pairing gripping rock riffs with Osbourne’s distinctive vocals, they found a real recipe for success. Black Sabbath’s music was fresh and interesting enough to appeal to countercultural kids, but it is still classic enough to endure for decades. Simply put, they just made excellent, timeless songs for headbanging to.
The same can be said for Ozzy Osbourne’s own favourite band, Guns N’ Roses. On the other side of the pond, the band were part of the wave of heavier rock acts that followed in Black Sabbath’s wake. Alongside Motörhead, Van Halen and Mötley Crüe, the sound of America was getting darker and rockier as the classic sounds of the 1970s began to descend towards what would become punk and grunge.
In 1987, when Guns N’ Roses released their debut album, Appetite For Destruction, it wasn’t an immediate success, however. It took a year before it gained traction, all thanks to a new push of the ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ music video once the MTV era got underway. Once that song took off, the band shot to global fame and has stayed there since.
Osbourne, however, was an early fan. He declared the record “One of the greatest debut albums of all time.”
He said, “There’s not a weak song in the bunch. I never get tired of hearing it.”
From then on, Gun N’ Roses had a dedicated fan in Ozzy Osbourne. As the band descended into feuds and drama in the 1990s, Osbourne was despairing. Like many famous bands, they had their fair share of fights and walkouts. In 1995, it all boiled over as Axl Rose, their lead singer, legally left and took the band name with him.
“The tragedy of the last 20 years was Guns N’ Roses,” Osbourne said to Alice Cooper in an interview, discussing the band’s breakdown. “They were well up there, then Axl read the tea leaves in his cup and went nuts or something,” he continued.
Black Sabbath, on the other hand, were relatively drama-free as all four original members stayed the course from start to finish. Maybe rock bands should take a leaf out of their book, suggesting there was method behind their utter madness.
