Being in a band with Ozzy Osbourne didn’t always lend itself to the most wholesome activities behind the scenes.
Despite becoming a lovable piece of rock and roll history throughout the 2000s, Osbourne was one of the most hedonistic artists of all time back in the day, and whenever he was on television, it was anyone’s guess whether people would be talking about the music or whatever trouble he got into that week. But underneath all of that facade, ‘The Prince of Darkness’ had those few musical soulmates he couldn’t get through to.
He may have been one of the most dangerous individuals that any concerned parent ever saw, but Osbourne only wanted to be respected by his peers and by his family. Even when he started earning real money and performing all over the world, Osbourne still had to struggle every single day trying to get the kind of support he wished he had from his parents.
If anything, Sharon becoming his manager may have been one of the greatest decisions that he ever made. Say what you want to about how Sharon treats those that she doesn’t like, but the fact that he survived to see the twilight years of his life is practically a miracle considering how close he was to death on numerous occasions. But if he was a maniac in his solo years, Black Sabbath was a whole different story.
Beyond the backstage parties, Osbourne already looked like one of the most unhinged creatures that rock and roll had ever spat out. From the moment that songs like ‘War Pigs’ started, he seemed to look like he was ripped right out of an insane asylum and was ready to rock the house for a few hours. While their fans were as rabid as Osbourne was, not everyone was in love with the spectacle of it all.
Despite being the face of the band, Osbourne always regretted not being able to get through to Tony Iommi back in the day, saying, “I never really knew Tony; we rarely spoke. He was the god-almighty figure in the band and verged on being a bully. I must have learned something from him, though, because when I left I did pretty well on my own. I still keep in touch with the rest of the band, but I don’t speak with Tony because we never talked when I was in the band.”
Then again, Osbourne may have been keeping his distance when he first joined the band. Iommi had already gone to school with Osbourne and had bullied him every now and again, and since he needed some convincing from Bill Ward to even get him in the band, it’s safe to say that Osbourne was walking on eggshells a little bit whenever he tried to get a word in with the guitarist.
They couldn’t have talked things out in the way that most other band members could, but part of their genius was being able to communicate through music. Osbourne would occasionally follow Iommi’s riff when coming up with vocal melodies, but one of the most underappreciated parts of Sabbath’s sound was Osbourne’s knack for coming up with the right melody over tunes like ‘Paranoid’.
He may not have been the most engaging lyricist of all time when he first started, but with Iommi pumping out riffs like ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Children of the Grave’, there was no need for small talk half the time. All they knew was that they had some truly macabre material, and even if it wasn’t the most commercial thing in the world, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world started catching on to what they were doing.
