MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ozzy Osbourne, rock 'n' roll's Prince of Darkness, has died. He was a reality TV star, a flamboyant, outrageous character. But our next guest says if he'd only been a singer of Black Sabbath, his influence would still be massive.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PARANOID")
BLACK SABBATH: (Singing) All day long I think of things, but nothing seems to satisfy. Think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify.
MARTIN: Lars Gotrich is our heavy metal expert at NPR Music, and he's here with us now to tell us more about Ozzy's legacy. Hello, Lars.
LARS GOTRICH, BYLINE: Hi, Michel.
MARTIN: So I - Black Sabbath put out its first album in 1970. What was the band's impact?
GOTRICH: I think it's important to note that Ozzy and his bandmates in Black Sabbath were from Birmingham, England, a working-class factory town, the kind of place where you're born on the assembly line and you die on the assembly line. It's, you know, bleak. So when Ozzy posted a flyer to start a band, it was likely out of desperation to leave. That desperation fuels Black Sabbath and the song "Black Sabbath" from the album "Black Sabbath."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACK SABBATH")
BLACK SABBATH: (Singing) Watches those flames get higher and higher. Oh, no, no. Please, God. Help me.
GOTRICH: You hear the doom and gloom in Tony Iommi's riffs, the turbulence of war in the rhythm section. Most of the lyrics were actually written by Geezer Butler, the bassist, but Ozzy's voice is the manifestation of agony.
MARTIN: Yes. And so cheery for this hour of the morning, you know?
GOTRICH: (Laughter) Yes.
MARTIN: You know, I'd forgotten this until we started hearing more about his life story because of - that, in 1979, he was actually kicked out of Sabbath for alcohol and drug abuse. But then he turned around and started his solo career. What did he achieve once he went solo?
GOTRICH: Well, this is the era where Ozzy bit off the head of a bat. So there's that. But he also released albums that went multiplatinum. Ozzy knew how to reinvent himself. The albums "Blizzard Of Ozz" and the "Diary Of A Madman" reveal the versatility of his voice and sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRAZY TRAIN")
OZZY OSBOURNE: (Singing) Mental wounds not healing. Life's a bitter shame. I'm going off the rails on a crazy train.
GOTRICH: You hear that guitar squeal on "Crazy Train"? He could make rock songs with pop music inclinations, get a little sugar in the salt, you know, so to speak. He was working with Randy Rhoads, a rock guitarist with classical training. And together, they expanded the possibilities of hard rock. It could still be wild and unruly yet somehow sophisticated.
MARTIN: You know, Ozzy and Black Sabbath played a final show just 18 days ago. It was a giant concert in their hometown of Birmingham. Metallica and Guns N' Roses and Mastodon were among the opening acts. Those are all influenced by Ozzy. Do you see a common thread there?
GOTRICH: Ozzy and Black Sabbath no doubt taught these artists and others how to be heavy in sound and in demeanor. Some bands picked up on the occult underpinnings. Some turned their extremity into something more terrifying. Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine have said that they started their bands because Sabbath's riffs were relatively simple, but they were powerful. And Ozzy, for all his flaws, of which there are many, gave permission to five decades of miscreants and cast-offs to lean into their anger, confusion and debauchery, and to do it loudly.
MARTIN: That is Lars Gotrich of NPR Music. Lars, thank you.
GOTRICH: Thank you, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAMA, I'M COMING HOME")
OSBOURNE: (Singing) Mama, I'm coming home. Time's gone by. It seems to be you could have been a better friend to me. Mama, I'm coming home. You took me in, and you drove me out. Yeah, you had me hypnotized, yeah, lost and found and turned around by the fire in your eyes. You made... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
