The Ravens Nest

Saying Goodbye To A Legend

Man has this spot been a place for dark news lately.

I’m going to share something that posted to me earlier in a conversation. Happens to be true.

RuneKnight3

7:15 PM

Irony: you post a story about rock and roll vampires the day Ozzy has passed on.

It’s true, I certainly did. A long one at that.

I’m not here to talk about fictional bands or Rock N’ Roll vampires. I’m here to talk about the man who terrified the hell out of me as a child, thrilled me as a teenager and got me though some pretty awful shit as an adult. I’m here to talk about the man, the myth and the legend; John “Ozzy” Osbourne.

When I say he terrified me as a kid, I’m going to show you why. I was a kid, no more than about five years old at the most. I was living in Carrizozo, New Mexico at the time and I’d heard the name Ozzy Osbourne. Some of my older friends talked about him. I was four or five years old and had no idea who the guy was. One day, I don’t recall how, but music videos were on. I got to see a few by Michael Jackson whom, to this day is still one of my favorite performers of all time. I tried mimicking Michael’s moonwalk, his spin. Always bumping into things and knocking stuff over. I can’t dance to save my life.

Anyway, Ozzy appeared on TV. I was initially excited. I had to see what my friends were fussing about.

It was Bark At The Moon before you ask. I had to look it up.

To a child of four or five, it sent me running directly to my room. Michael Jackson’s video for Thriller did as well. The zombie with the blood coming out of its mouth was a little much for me. I didn’t care much for scary movies at the time despite watching them with my dad who constantly assured me none of it was real. Dad wasn’t home that day. Just me, my little sister and my mom.

Who stayed to watch? My little sister! No kidding, she was sitting on the floor of that living room and while I was running to get away, I could hear her point and go “Puppy!”

Similar species, sis but that’s a mistake that could cost ya.

Later on, after the entire thing was over, there was a sort of Bazaar going on that we were taken to. They had sunglasses there. One of them had Michael Jackson’s logo on the lenses and the other had Ozzy. My sis picked Ozzy. We all know what my pick was by now.

Then the stories during the Satanic Panic about him. All the wild claims based on things he’d actually done without any context (and you were not allowed to ask…like that ever stopped me, of course.)

Well take being scared half out of your mind from an video from the early 80s, knowing nothing of Black Sabbath and then being told stories like that, it was pretty easy to believe. For a long time, I did believe it.

Then I became a teenager, getting my start with Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and I’d eventually come to Ozzy Osbourne’s video for Mr. Tinkertrain.

Didn’t really think much about the lyrics at the time but it still remains a favorite of mine and got me introduced to Zakk Wylde on guitars. At the time, I didn’t think much of this particular video but the song eventually grew on me to the point where it was ringing in my head and I really wanted a copy of No More Tears. Turns out, it’s still one of my favorite albums.

I was there when Ozzmosis dropped and tried to get See You On The Other Side played during my graduation as a tribute to two of our classmates.

I wish I could tell you that was the song we played on that day but Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd was what was selected.

On the day of our graduation, the weather sucked and the transformer that supplied power to our P.A. system was struck by lightning. I’m not exaggerating. I was soaking wet, just coming off of being sick and a bolt of lightning hit that transformer nearby and it sounded like a bomb had been detonated. I had to smile to myself a bit because…

That’s What You Get For Fucking With The Prince of Fucking Darkness, Baby!

Throughout my life, there was always Ozzy. I got into Black Sabbath and I even bought a copy of Trick R’ Treat from a pawn shop for a buck that featured both Ozzy and Gene Simmons. Gene played a radio DJ and Ozzy played a preacher with slick hair, a nice suit and ranting about how evil rock-and-roll was. Scariest part of the movie? You don’t need a translator for Ozzy’s speech. All jokes aside, it’s a bad horror movie and I love bad movies. They’re just fun to watch.

Thanks to my diminishing fear of horror movies and TV, I found myself fascinated by Ozzy’s music whether with Black Sabbath or his solo projects.

I was listening to him through high school, well into college and tech school when Nu-Metal was on the rise. I got a friend the first Ozzfest videocassette because she wanted to go and didn’t get to. Thanks to Ozzy, I got to check out Coal Chamber and so many others. Ozzfest was always a cool time and, with the advent of the internet, I could watch Ozzy videos or even footage from the Ozzfests that came after that.

People in some of my circles screamed about how bad The Osbournes was, taking the veil off and demystifying Ozzy as a sort of family man, just a regular guy still doing rock-n-roll with his family, pets and a whole lot of bleeped-out F-Bombs dropped on TV as though he were firing nukes at a facility from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

The Prince of Darkness did go from a term that shrouded Ozzy in mystery into a sort of in-joke. Personally, I loved The Osbournes. I have the first season and it’s always fun to watch.

There was so much more in the years to come past that that I could hardly keep up. Ozzy was crazy busy doing his thing. More albums, more tours, the revelation that the reason all the drugs and booze hadn’t killed him was because he had a genetic mutation that rendered him nearly impervious to the rather deleterious effects, however, while the chance of him ODing were slim, they were never zero.

There was an episode of The Osbournes where he picked up a pack of cigarettes and stated that he used to smoke them all the time but now that he had quit, he couldn’t stand the sight of them.

Having quit thirteen years ago, I can’t say I blame him.

He toured with Marilyn Manson, reuniting with Black Sabbath at the time for the album, 13. He cut album after album after album.

I’ll be honest, had he made the decision to retire once and for all after the success of all that, I wouldn’t have been mad at him at all. As a fan, he didn’t owe me a damn thing.

Later on, he and his son Jack went around traveling and it was all over TV as Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour. Seeing Ozzy get on the Deez Nuts bandwagon was funny as hell for me.

He finished his career in the same place it was started with over 40,000 adoring fans while he sat on his throne onstage and gave it his all. The man lived and breathed rock-and-roll and made that his life. With the catalogue of albums, singles, movies, etc that he gave to the world, I can honestly say that I’ve been scared to death, fascinated, entertained and now, I’m deeply saddened that he’s no longer with us but I remember he once said, “I never really knew what the big deal was, we were just four dimps from Birmingham…”

That may be, Ozzman but the four of you came across as four guys who got pissed off with having no hope and a bleak future but let me tell you what the big deal was.

Your music and performances. All the stuff that happened offstage and in the news aside, Ozzy, you went out there and smashed or sober, you made music and put on stage shows alongside some of the absolute titans of metal like Jake E. Lee, Randy Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, Lemmy, Marilyn Manson and the list goes on and on and on from there. You were hysterical in The Jerky Boys (The Fucking Monkees?) and you were the one legit part of Ghostbusters 2016 that was actually funny. When you set out to entertain, that’s exactly what you did. We watched you put family and career side by side at one point. I think The Osbournes gave us that look behind the curtain and showed those who still went on with Satanic Panic nonsense that there was nothing at all to the claims. Your music got me through rough times. We felt it and to this day, you’re still my favorite of the lead singers of Black Sabbath.

Now you join the Mt. Rushmore right alongside Ronnie James Dio, Randy Rhoads, Lemmy and so many that went before you.

We love you, Ozzy.

We’ll miss you.

We thank you.

Now, get into the afterlife and give them something they’ll never forget. Your work here is done and you’ve done more than most who would accept that there’s simply no hope.

What was the big deal?

You gave us hope, Ozzy and not one of us could ever thank you enough for that.