The song Ozzy Osbourne said had one of the best moments in music
Anyone who has been in rock and roll as long as Ozzy Osbourne knows the importance of what a great rock and roll tune should sound like.
He was already well-versed in all kinds of rock and roll from the minute that he fell in love with The Beatles, and every moment he had in Black Sabbath was about trying to chase after the same high that he got listening to his favourites. But when you look at the greatest songs of all time, a lot of people remember moments a lot better than full pieces of songs.
Which is half the reason why Sabbath were as successful as they were. Not everyone was going to get onboard if they knew that half of their material went well beyond the traditional length of a single, but when listening to Tony Iommi’s guitar licks, it was easy for anyone to get sucked in by whatever they were playing, whether it was the opening to ‘Iron Man’ or the sound of what very well by the end of the world on ‘Symptom of the Universe’ off of Sabotage.
The same could be said of Osbourne’s solo career as well. Everyone knows what ‘Crazy Train’ is all about from the minute that ‘The Prince of Darkness’ screams ‘ALL ABOARD’, and no matter which guitarist he was working with at any given time, hearing Osbourne belt to the rafters was what people stuck around for. But even if everyone was focused on the wild man onstage, Osbourne always liked to surround himself with people who excelled in their field.
It’s no shocker that Randy Rhoads is still considered one of the best guitarists that Osbourne has ever worked with, but after a few years in the business, Osbourne wasn’t strictly looking out for the riffs anymore. He had been around the block a few times in the studio, and the best moments only come from having a great foundation underneath everything once the rest of the band kicks in. The power comes from the riff, but the heartbeat comes from building out the right drum track.
That’s not just exclusive to metal, either. Whether you’re talking about R&B, rap, or blues, most songs that have a shot on the charts aren’t going to mean a thing if they don’t have that beat that everyone can get down with. It’s incredible for anyone to craft those kinds of hooks, but Osbourne still felt that no one has ever come close to topping what Phil Collins did when playing along to ‘In the Air Tonight’.
There have been countless drum fills that have taken over the airwaves, but nothing has surpassed those few seconds for Osbourne, saying, “I loved Phil Collins, of course. Still do. Every time I hear ‘In the Air Tonight’, it sends a shiver down my spine. That drum fill… fucking hell, man. It’s gotta be one of the best moments in any song, ever.” Which is strange coming from the guy that had also made tunes like ‘Sussudio’.
But if you look at the kind of things that Osbourne looked for in a rock and roll song, everything that Collins did on ‘In the Air Tonight’ was exactly right. The whole song is about wanting cold-blooded revenge on somebody, and after building up that sense of tension for what feels like ages, hearing those drums come in towards the end of the tune has the same impact on the operatic section of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or the opening guitar lick of ‘Smoke on the Water’.
There was hardly any reason to think that Collins was going to be playing along to any of Osbourne’s tunes or anything, but the common language had more to do with atmosphere than anything else. Collins created a certain world with that one song, and it wouldn’t have felt out of place had those keyboard pads been replaced with some roaring guitars had Osbourne done a version of it.
