The iconic heavy metal and hard rock musician Ozzy Osbourne has died.
As much as any figure in popular music, Ozzy Osbourne was the icon of the musical style that he helped to create. Dubbed the Prince of Darkness, Osbourne’s rise from poverty in Birmingham England to one of the most popular and iconic musicians in the history of rock and roll is as amazing as it was improbable.
In one of the more unusual moments of rock and roll history, Osbourne presided over an enormous concert that acted as his living funeral just earlier this month, in Birmingham England in front of a huge crowd. In addition to performing a short set of his own solo original music, he performed a set with his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band, Black Sabbath. Gripped by the ravages of Parkinson’s disease he performed the entire show from a gothic throne.
Osbourne was joined by his Sabbath bandmates Geezer Butler on bass, Tony Iommi on guitar, and drummer Bill Ward who had not played with the band in years.
Ozzy Osbourne setlist Back to the Beginning:
I Don’t Know
Mr Crowley
Suicide Solution
Mama I’m Coming Home
Crazy Train
A who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal were on the lineup from Ozzy and Sabbath to Gojira, Yungblud, Ron Wood, Tom Morello, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Tool, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and more. The event was purported to have raised nearly two hundred million in money for charity between ticket sales and pay per view simulcast.
From the video channel of Dmitry Artemov
Black Sabbath setlist Back to the Beginning
War Pigs
N.I.B.
Iron Man
Paranoid
Ozzy’s career was an incredible one. Black Sabbath sold over seventy million albums. He left the band in chaotic fashion gripped by addiction to drugs and alcohol and then launched one of the most storied solo careers of any artist, ever. He sold over fifty million albums as a solo artist, so all together he is in the rarefied echelon of artists who have sold over one hundred million albums across their career.
His career seemed stalled when in the early 2000s a strange appearance on MTv’s Cribs led to a show on the music turned situational drama network called the Osbournes. The world fell in love with the Osbournes as a family, and Ozzy as an accomplished but doddering older man who was both in control and out of control of his own destiny, family, career, and daily life. It both lifted Osbourne to the highest heights of celebrity and also grounded him to ordinary people who saw that he was just like them, dealing with family, work, and personal challenges and victories.
This led to several seasons of the Osbournes, and television careers for both his daughter Kelly Osbourne who has become a fashion reporter and son Jack Osbourne who has become a producer and travel show creator. Father and son had a travel series called Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour which was a fun watch, though far from serious.
Osbourne did not rest on this fame. He continued to put out albums that not only reached his audience, but expanded it. One of his later albums, Under the Graveyard which was released in 2020, contained some of his most effective writing and recording up until that point.
Few artists experience the ascent, descent, and resurrection that Osbourne has over a career that lasted over half of a century. Few artists are allowed the opportunity to say goodbye to their legions of fans via a celebrity concert in the way that Osbourne was able with the Back to the Beginning concert. Osbourne was 76 years old.
Rest in Peace, Price of Darkness.
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