Almanac Music: Long Live The Prince…Of Darkness.

 

The Prince of Darkness is dead. Long live the Prince. Except there will never be another quite like the great Ozzy Osbourne.

 

 

John Michael ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne – lead singer of heavy metal pioneering band Black Sabbath, mega-successful solo artist and TV reality show star – died on 22nd July 2025 aged 76 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Incredibly he fronted up to a concert in his home town of Birmingham England just 2 weeks earlier, where the heavyweights of heavy metal gathered for one last gig in his honour. All four original members of Black Sabbath performed together for the first time in 20 years. 42,000 fans packed Aston Villa park and millions more watched via live stream worldwide. 

 

While Ozzy Osbourne played up to his reputation as Prince of Darkness, in reality he was more like a jester; always entertaining the court. He was clearly waiting for his one last moment in the sun before shuffling off this mortal coil. As always he revelled in the attention and had the crowd in the palm of his hand.

 

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One of the things I have to thank my old man for is my taste in music. As a kid the soundtrack to my world was Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath. For much of my upbringing my old man was an interstate truck driver. I’d sometimes go away with him and I clearly remember hurtling down dark highways in the wee hours with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath blasting the truck’s cabin. In all honestly I didn’t appreciate it back then. But I am deeply grateful for it now.

 

I remember the first time I heard the opening track of Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album: The rain, the thunder, the lonely church bell and its sense of impending doom. I must have been no more than 8 years old and it freaked me out. I’d never heard anything like it. I can only imagine what it must have been like when it was first released in 1970 and no-one had heard anything like it.

 

It wasn’t until years later that I became a fully-fledged metal head and begun to understand Black Sabbath’s true place as the godfathers of metal. In the days long before Google, or the internet for that matter, if you wanted to learn about something you had to ask someone. I was drawn to heavy metal and I asked around at school who I should talk to about which heavy metals bands I should check out. I was directed toward my now life-long mate Whitey. “Ask the guy with the long hair and the studded arm-bands,” I was told. I should have known.

 

Whitey started me on Motley Crue but Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t far behind. Whitey was (and still is) a huge fan.

 

An obsession with Iron Maiden followed. Metallica and Slayer came soon after. Yet Black Sabbath always loomed as the dark overlords of metal. The original and the best.

 

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Ozzy wasn’t the engine room of Black Sabbath; he was its figurehead, its charismatic interlocutor. When most people think of Black Sabbath they think of Ozzy. Yet it was Black Sabbath’s bass player Geezer Butler- a devout Christian – who wrote most of the band’s so-called satanic lyrics. The downtuned guitar sound that defined Black Sabbath and spawned a whole new genre of music came from Tony Iommi thanks, in part, to a work accident that removed the tops of two of his fingers on his fretting hand. False fingertips allowed him to keep playing but meant he couldn’t apply the usual pressure to the strings and had to downtune to compensate. Black Sabbath’s signature riff sound was born. Heavy metals fans consider this divine intervention.

 

Technology and innovation will never beat originality and genius. Iommi’s downtuned guitar often made Black Sabbath sound like all rhythm section, with Ozzy’s ethereal lyrics floating hauntingly above. Ozzy sang like he was running from something dark that lurked beyond. He sounded frightened and this leant Black Sabbath its sense of horror.

 

The cover art of Black Sabbath’s ground breaking first album further enhanced their reputation as purveyors of the occult. A sole androgynous figure dressed in black, witch-like, stands looking back at us. A pink tinge in the sky suggest blood has been shed. Something evil may be lurking in the stone farmhouse beyond. A nightmare incarnate.

 

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It could be said that Ozzy was, at times, a bit of a prick. He was unfaithful to his wife Sharon on multiple occasions. He was most likely an inattentive father. His band members endured years of disruptive and disrespectful behaviour. But great rock and roll front men are rarely angels. Despite his faults, those who knew Ozzy remember him as generous, inclusive, and always friendly and engaging – even to strangers.

 

I saw Black Sabbath play live once – in 2013 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Even then it was obvious that Ozzy was in the throws of something life-threatening. He shuffled up to the mic like someone was holding him up with strings. But once that bone-shaking opening riff to War Pigs kicked in, Ozzy was once again the lead singer of the greatest rock band of all time. That night will always be one of my favourite gigs. It was so good that they made it into the film Gathered in their Masses to celebrate what was supposed to be their last ever tour of Australia (they came out again in 2016). My enduring memory of it will be going into heavy metal rapture during that phenomenal, driving bass riff of Children of the Grave; my favourite Black Sabbath song.

 

It’s probably not necessary to say that they just don’t make ‘em like Ozzy anymore. But i will say it anyway – they just don’t make ‘em like Ozzy anymore. Maybe that’s a good thing. However you see it, with Ozzy’s passing goes the last (apologies to Keith Richards) of the great icons of 70’s rock n roll excess. It also marks the final final end of one of the most ground-breaking and influential rock bands of all time.

 

Vale Ozzy Osbourne.

 

 

More from Scott Hunt Here

 

 

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