Ozzy Osbourne was a Leviathan of the working class with mythology so stratified that she is hard to believe in his death. His reckless life seemed overcome only by the Anneddotic generated by the same: years of alcohol and drugs abuse, years of sparkling successes and very fast ascene alternating with personal tragedies, absolute chaos. John Osbourne got up every time with a mocking smile and that alampted air of those who have no idea why they are still alive.
Certainly no one would have bet on him in the early 1960s. Fourth of seven children, coming from the popular district of Aston, in Birmingham, dyslexic, without particular qualities, victim of sexual abuse in his school, after several suicide attempts he leaves the institute and is dedicated to a disparate series of works: worker on construction sites, plumber, claper -player of Clacson, employed in a slaughterhouse. At 17 he was surprised to steal in a clothing store and the court sentenced him to pay a fine. Ozzy, however, does not have the money (if not maybe the clothes would have bought them). The father yes, but to give him a lesson he makes him incarcerate for three months in the Victorian prison of Winson Green.
In short, the daily life of John Michael Osbourne seems to be an episode of Teenagence. Music thinks about having a saving role, in the form of She Loves You of the Beatles. His love for the Fab Four, which will accompany him throughout his life, is the spark that triggers the desire to escape a life of the Oliver Twist and look for an escape route through the beat, the blues and the electrical music that is spreading with splash of oil all over the world. Together with three other reluctant travel companions, they too from Aston, gives life to the Black Sabbath, a band that it is superfluous to say anything if not reiterating to Libitum who literally invented a genre without which thousands of bands would never even have been existing.
In ten years the Sabbaths put the planet with fire and fire in fire (although often re -evaluated in retrospect) and live performances that make those of illustrious colleagues seem like Deep Purple and Who a concert by Carolina Benvenga. But Ozzy from the beginning has no easy life within the group: Geezer Butler writes the texts, Tony Iommi dedicates himself to music together with Bill Ward, leaving Ozzy a role similar to that of Liam in the Oasis, that of the atypical frontman Scassacazzo of which the three would do without if he did not have such a recognizable vocal stamp and his particular magnetism.
When Ward, Butler and Iommi unanimously decide to hunt him from the group, citing his insatiable appetite for alcohol and substances as a motivation, Ozz's response is more or less: look at guys that I do exactly the same things you do eh, I don't seem to be worse. Nothing. The three burn him out and Ozzy, with the bouncing check for the use of the group name, does what every person would do with responsibility, vision and balance: he closes in his apartment and for three months he dedicates herself to feast of alcohol and cocaine, repeating that “the party is over, in a while I go back to Birmingham to live with the subsidy”.
But like a Phoenix, even if with the features of a chicken on the spit, Ozzy lays unexpectedly from the ashes and begins an incredible solo career. His first two records, Blizzard of Ozz And Diary of a Madmanare now ascribed to the canon of modern metal, angular stones of heavy music thanks to its renewed image of prince of darkness and first -rate collaborators, primarily the never late virtuous virtuous Randy Rhods.
In perennial boy between madness, self -harm and advertising stunt, travels around the world when during a concert at des Moines detaches a bite with a bat to a bat arrived on the stage and subsequently undergoing anti -rabular prophylaxis to the local hospital. The absurd death of Rhoads, crashed at just 25 years of age with a tourism plane during a stage of the Diary of a Madman Tour piloted by Osbourne's driver under the influence of drugs is a very hard blow, but Ozzy again, pushed by the implactable, loving, brilliant wife Sharon, continues. The Ultimate Sin further consolidates its metal superstar status, also capable of embracing an ever wider audience with superballato at Bon Jovi with No More Tears of 1991.
The announcement of his last lap of dates before retirement, no more tours (a word game with No More Tears) arrives shortly after but now the public has learned that from Ozzy you can expect everything, in fact just over a year later it will change your mind making the album go out Ozzmosis and getting back on the road with his new Retirement Sucks Tour. The Osbournea documentaryness on his particular family (euphemism) is the most viewed television show in the history of MTV but also this parenthesis as a free grandfather in a Doctor in the family Soon it gives way to its true nature, that of tireless stage animal, empathic, sensitive and self -ironic rocker.
Parkinson's diagnosis, made public in 2020, seems to put the fine word, an end swollen with sadness in its incredible parable. But there is still energy for some other stroke of the tail: the exit of Ordinary Man And Patient number 9his last two works and, we are talking about two weeks ago, his monumental farewell to the scenes, the mythological Back to the Beginning where it all began, in his Birmingham, surrounded by the Gotha of heavy music as a peperonata on August 15. A historical event, far from the pornography of pain and from the sterile self -celebrating mania to make cash (the entire proceeds, 140 million pounds, was donated to the treatment of Parkinson's and at the children's hospital in Birmingham) lasted nine hours in which memorable performances and assorted miracles occurred (Steven Tyler who finds the voice!), All an assist for the grand finale: a set of songs His solo career flanked by the faithful Zakk Wylde in which Ozzy, destroyed in the physique but still able to release sparks by his spirited eyes, makes the 45 thousand fans cry by singing a poignant Mama I'm coming home (if you don't move you looking at it you have a last album instead of the heart), and its complete Sabbath, together for the last time after 20 years.
Can we honestly ask for more? Osbourne put them all in line, he showed the whole world as he makes himself one last time and then said good evening, the music is over. A true Homeric hero, the architect of the best scene in the history of music (on an equal footing with that of Bowie).
A young man asked me on Instagram a few days ago why we fans of the Sabbath we tear for Ozzy, when Ronnie James God is a far superior singer. It is very true, Ozzy had a peculiar and very recognizable vocal stamp, almost ungraded, without a vowel extension worthy of note. A physique to Renzo Montagnani, the athletic prowess of the Tafazzi of Giacomo Poretti. But despite or thanks to all this it was one of the greatest of all time. He never wanted to change the world, he was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things, a great dad (at least with his last three children) and now, mamahe finally returned home. Thanks for everything Ozzy, we will never forget.
