Why does Ozzy Osbourne hate “heavy metal”?
No one in their right mind would try to claim that Ozzy Osbourne and the rest of Black Sabbath are not metal pioneers; that’s what their entire cultural relevance rests on. Without the band of occult-obsessed anti-hippies, the bridge between hard rock and what became metal would not have been finished. Guitar music would likely have been left in a limbo of progressive and weird psychedelia for a great deal longer, with the ensuing form much stranger than the ubiquitous, heavy one we know today.
Whether it be Tony Iommi’s sludgy, de-tuned riffs—which were always the sonic tip of the group’s spear—the evil wailing of Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward’s elemental rhythm section, or Butler’s dark lyrics concentrating on gothic and science fiction themes, every aspect of the group was perfect for them to charge headfirst into the cultural space left by the end of The Beatles and the counterculture imploding.
With a backdrop of a world becoming even more ghoulish than anyone could have imagined during the peak of the flower power fever only a few years before, in the summer of 1967, things were set for the quartet of madcap Brummies to do what they’d set out to. After forming in 1968, the group moved quickly, and although Iommi had caught the eye of Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson and had a very brief sojourn as their axeman, appearing on The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, the group committed to their sound and released their self-titled debut, and its more assertive follow-up, Paranoid, in 1970.
Purveyors of a bewitchingly ominous, heavy and profoundly grooving sound, Sabbath were a key component of the unholy triumvirate alongside fellow British acts Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, who were also doing their bit to morph rock into metal.
Over the coming years, the group continued to pioneer metal. While their hard living would end the band’s classic lineup at the end of the 1970s, even after this schism, the members continued to fly the metal flag. After his 1979 departure, Osbourne, now deep into drugs and alcohol, would return from the professional brink against all odds with a new group, the Blizzard of Ozz, in tow. The band featured the hot young guitar hero, Randy Rhoads, who Osbourne credits with saving him and helping him to develop his sound into a heavier, more bombastic character that pioneered the metal sound of the 1980s.
Off the back of 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz and the following year’s Diary of Madman, Osbourne’s notoriously heavy living, and the moment he bit the head off a live bat in January 1982, when performing in Des Moines, Osbourne cemented his position as ‘The Prince of Darkness’, and the man who embodied the metal genre most. As we know, over the coming years, musically and characteristically, he would crystallise this position further with songs such as ‘Bark at the Moon’ and moments of drug-addled mania such as the time he brutally slaughtered his cats.
Despite this absolutely infallible link to the world of metal, or heavy metal as people of a certain generation call it when speaking to The New Zealand Herald in 2008, Osbourne explained why he hates the phrase “heavy metal.” It’s an interesting point, as whether he likes it or not, he had a significant hand in its formation.
Osbourne said: “You know, we had success from the word go. We never had to wait. You know, we formed in ’68, then had a bit of a booze up touring thing in ’69, recorded the first Sabbath album in 1970 in 12 hours or something and it just took off and it’s never stopped for me. So when you’re immersed in something it’s hard to say. Plus, I hate that f****** phrase heavy metal. It’s got no musical connotation what so ever.”
It’s ironic, as the term “heavy metal” or metal arguably has more musical and cultural connotations than any other genre. It prompts images of de-tuned guitars, wailing vocalists, leather, hellfire, and, of course, the son of Satan himself, Ozzy Osbourne. Yet, besides the irony, his comments do indicate that bands often see themselves as distinct from what the outside world ties them to. For Osbourne, Iommi and the rest of Black Sabbath, they were always just “heavy rock”, not this newfangled and outlandish metal lark.
