The solo song Ozzy Osbourne wrote about his split from Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath were undoubtedly one of the most influential rock bands ever to pick up instruments. When Ozzy Osbourne was initially fired from the band in 1979 because of his recurring problems with drugs and alcohol, it wasn’t the fact of having to leave such an influential band that bothered him. Instead, he found not being able to make music with his friends challenging.
The band were friends before they started making music together, so naturally, it was hard for Osbourne to recover once they had decided it would be better if they continued without him. Ozzy didn’t hold much ill will towards the band; he was just disappointed.
His first solo album doubled up as not only the start of his solo career, which would prove very successful, but it was also the confidence booster he needed. He recorded the album with bass player Bob Daisley and the guitarist Randy Rhoads. Osbourne’s involvement wasn’t massive, but the two did encourage him to think of some lyrics to try and keep morale up.
One song in particular to which Ozzy contributed the most was the track ‘Goodbye To Romance’, where he put together lyrics describing how he felt about being fired by Sabbath.
“Ozzy was fairly easy to work with,” said Bob Daisley, reflecting on their first album together, “He was a bit down at first because he’d just been fired from Black Sabbath, and he was depressed, and he was unsure of himself. It really damaged his confidence, being fired from Black Sabbath.”
As a big fan of early pop acts, Osbourne got the song title from the Everly Brothers’ song ‘Bye Bye Love’, which says, “She was my baby till he stepped in / goodbye to romance that might have been.”
Things eventually went sour between Daisley and Osbourne, not because of personal reasons but because the project was supposed to be a joint outing where all proceeds were shared, and it was eventually marketed as an Ozzy Osbourne solo project. That applied to the debut and the second album ‘Diary of a Madman’.
Despite things ending badly, though, the musical relationship that Ozzy developed between Daisley and Rhoads was massively beneficial to him, not just on a commercial level but a personal one, too. After having his confidence take a massive hit, getting back in the studio, being asked to have some creative input and releasing music that proved to be successful gave Osbourne his confidence back. He would eventually go on to reunite with Sabbath and have a successful career on his own, but there is a chance he would have stopped making music altogether were it not for those initial solo records.
