Ozzy Osbourne Tribute: Our Favorite Songs & Memories

Hey y'all, welcome to an episode of Pastimes at 80s High. A very sad episode that we're going to throw in quickly. Another absentee sidecast or said sidecast, if you will, because Dongo couldn't make it tonight. He got stuck at work late. But anyway, what we're going to talk about, and of course, you know, with a saddened heart and hearts here, is the passing of Ozzy Osborne. And we're just going to shoot off the cuff and do a quick episode about it and get some of our thoughts out. I have Brother Mark here with me. Hello, Mark.

Hey AJ. Hey, Kevin.

I got Kev here. Hey, what's up, gentlemen? I'm AJ, and we're just going to kind of shoot from the hip here. And I guess I'll get us going real quick. And just the first thing I wanted to say is how friggin' happy I am. And this I'm going to go into a little tidbit here, if you will, but um I'm so happy that Sabbath was able to get that final show off, you know, just over two weeks ago. Aussie looked good. He sounded pretty good on the, you know, the uh edited version, and he sounded pretty damn good on his own for someone sitting there with Parkinson's, you know, at 76. And um just made me think of something, brother Mark, about how it kind of breaks my heart because David was our brother David was gonna do obviously not Birmingham with 40,000 people, but we had a benefit thing going that he was looking so forward to and when he went in the hospice like days before that was gonna happen.

So yeah, no, it was it was it kind of hit home, but it was like three days before then it exactly later he was gone.

So anyway, so that is a big thing for for Aussie to be able to have done that, and then he did like a an autograph session for hours, like a week after that, you know, just sat there and greeted people, and so as sick as he was, and you know, as surprising as you wouldn't have thought it was, after all that, it was kind of surprising how quickly it happened, you know what I mean? But anyway, so yeah, I mean, like I said, we'll shoot from the hip.

Yeah, I don't I don't think you're you know, in a situation like that, you're you're not surprised, but you're shocked by it. You know what I mean? You just don't expect, especially somebody uh of his what he's meant to all of us, what he meant to uh music. I mean, really, and there's a lot of different opinions about who who he was and what he did. And you know, I've said this, you know, as we were talking about this, that maybe maybe not the greatest humanitarian, maybe not up for a Nobel Peace Prize, but he played a role, and the role that was Ozzie Osbourne was legendary, and and and you know, you talk to um like Zach and and some of these other people, and they none of them would have a career, right? If it wasn't for Ozzy and Black Sabbath, none of it would exist, not at least not the way that it does. Right, right, right. And so it just the the man was the legend was amazing, you know, and you can say what you want about what his family life might have looked like to us, or whatever else. Um, you know, some of his substance abuse and his problems in the past, right? Whatnot. Um rock star, man. Right? Yeah, he was he lived the role of the rock star and and and kind of blazed the path. So definitely moved by by his loss.

Absolutely. One of the things I'd like to say is he didn't buck the trends or anything. He continued to be Ozzy Osbourne. Um, Gene Simmons. Don't mark you bunker me. He he spoke that he spoke about that on an interview, and he's absolutely right that uh I mean Gene even admitted that you know he took it up the ass basically, and that he followed the herd, but Ozzy never did.

Um, ultimate sin, I might disagree with you a bit, but anyway.

Okay, well basically.

What about the disco album? The Aussie disco album.

No, but he stayed true to himself. I mean he was he was a pioneer. I mean, he was he start you know the Black Sabbath pretty much would you guys say that it was the beginning of heavy metal?

They are the founding fathers of heavy metal. There is zero question about it.

But no, I mean Ozzy he did not go through uh his pop phase. I don't think so. I mean, he did the thing with Lita Ford, which they played on the radio today.

Which was a Lita Ford song, mind you.

I understand, but but you hear him say if I close my eyes forever, you know, it just it was kind of strange, right? Yeah, it sure it sure does. And he's one of the few people that you know one of the few musicians that you're gonna we're gonna be doing a podcast about when they pass away.

Absolutely.

But you know you know what I mean? There's very few people, very few musicians that you're gonna I mean, this was guttural. This was really a kick in the balls to hear that Ozzy Osbourne passed away. And I mean Black Sabbath to me was one of those bands growing up that I listened to and I was I mean, I didn't really discover them AJ until I got to Guilford. And hell, I didn't have had didn't discover hard rock, Kevin, either until I got to Guildford. Yeah. I mean or after that, but I mean Black Sabbath was huge. I was very depressed and their music spoke to me. It didn't really depress me, but I probably depressed Black Sabbath. You know, do you guys remember?

Do you guys remember like your first the first time you heard Sabbath or the first time you heard Aussie? Do you have any? I I mean I've got a couple of different memories that but war pigs comes to mind for me.

Yeah, and then to me, it was I'm sorry, Aja, go ahead.

Well, I was gonna say another one that I just remember being one of the first that hit me big time, and that was probably my fear. This is obviously way after it came out, but electric funeral just always hit home. I mean, we lived through the 80s, people, and that cold war when you're friggin, you know, an adolescent young teen, that was a real fear, and that song just hit home, and it was one of the first ones I remember hearing.

So and and every song was about that. They just some of them masked it a little better with 99 balloons or whatever. Right, right, right, exactly. Not quite as doom-filled as as Sabbath, but it fit.

Right. I'll get into some of their lyrics in a minute, but my first memory, and I don't remember AG, I think somebody gave us some records. The first song I ever heard was Sweetleaf on uh Master of Reality. I I think somebody gave us that record. I I think this is what uh got me to to get the uh next album out. The next one I bought the next one I bought. Okay.

Oh, the next one you bought. Gotcha. Gotcha. That makes sense. Okay.

So yeah, it was the next one I bought, and uh but uh some there's a great song on Master of Reality that I implore every one of you Black Sabbath Aussie and Aussie fans to listen to, and everyone who thinks he's the Prince of Darkness, listen to the song after forever. In fact, I would implore you to not even go to Master of Reality. I would implore you to go to the concert they did in 1999 and watch it live, you can get it right on YouTube. The friggin' electricity through that uh that stadium was incredible, and it's all about it's all about saying how great God is. So, you know, and a lot of the lyrics. I mean, look at War Pigs, uh which was you know one of my obvious favorite songs. I mean, just a great tune. Incredible. So but yeah. So yeah, that that that's when I my first introduction to the band, and uh I had them right up with Aerosmith and Uncle Ted and uh Kiss at that point, and I still do. Absolutely.

There was there was as dark as the music was, it wasn't always the lyrics or the message were there was a lot of positive stuff and a lot of a lot of cool stuff in the in there as well, you know. I mean, let's face it, he's the first one to admit how heavily he was influenced by the Beatles, and you can hear that in everything that Ozzy did.

So um, one thing I just wanted to butt in and say is talking about the Prince of Darkness and all the evil, um, evil, but uh just a few of the things I've listened to. Actually, Eddie Trunk did a three-hour um or is doing a three-hour uh dedication today. I only got about 20 minutes in, but like two of the things that I already heard was uh Vinny Apose was on Aposy. I always get the two confused I don't have a clue how to say it. Caramina Pice and Vinny Aposey.

But anyway, brothers with different last names.

But he was talking about because Vinny was one of the only to play with um Aussie and Dio, but oh wow, um but how Ozzy would dump water on him like during the show, and then like two nights in, Sharon came up and was like, How's it going? You know, how you doing good? But you know, he keeps dumping water on me. She's like, What? And it never happened again. He was just talking about how um he wore the pants in the family, but some or she wore the pants, obviously. I was gonna say what he's talking about, but one thing that he said that really hit home to me, and it goes to show you how you know us little people don't always know everything, and two things I wanted to say here, and that's one that uh Vinny uh Ozzy would talk to Vinny and talk about how much he loved Ronnie because Vinny had obviously played with Ronnie. Yep, and you know, so how you were you're led into these thoughts that people think out there. But the other one was that that metal show, which Eddie hosted with Don Jimmy's. That was a great show, by the way. And uh Jim Fuck, why did his name just left me? But whatever, it's not it's not important.

Jim Florentine or Florentine A J Malsey or just Amy Malamski? Because I believe there's two different ones, right?

But anyway, the point is that um they would try to get him on all the time, you know, and everyone's like, why don't you have Arav Aussie on? He had Iomi on, he had Geezer Butler on, and they're sitting in like the airport or a lobby somewhere, and they're watching that metal show, and he's talking about how well come no I can't do the Aussie voice, but he's like, How come no one ever asked me to go on this? I would love to do something like this, and he was asked dozens of times, but the management wouldn't allow it.

So management, you mean?

Yeah, so you gotta wonder, you know, a lot of these people out there that you know question are I mean, obviously he needed maybe more balls, but you know, you gotta wonder what he knew about and what he didn't, because a lot of these people that got fucked over the years, I think were getting fucked by Sharon.

So true, but here's the other thing. I was thinking about this when Mark was talking about how he never bucked the trend. I mean, he he never stopped being Aussie and he never followed the trends. And you gotta figure that a lot of that, as maligned as she can be, was her curating his career. Yeah, well, true. And his career was as successful as it was, due in part to her.

I met Ozzy when I was around 18, and he came into my father's office for management with Black Sabbath. So I was 18 when I first met him. Love at first night? No, no, not at all. I was like, oh Lord, look at them.

What is it that kept you so attached to him?

He was so funny, so funny and quick-witted, and yet very vulnerable.

And the other thing is that he loved her. He loved her greatly. You know, I mean, the the Yoko thing, whatever, all of that from the outside, you don't know. You don't know what happens in two people's relationship. So he loved her, she loved him. Right. That is what it is, it's really none of our business. I mean, again, there's many people that can tell you about the horrible things she did, but again, I think you have to respect that his career was the success it was because of of who she was in part. I don't doubt that.

I don't doubt it, but no, I mean, I mean, it's just Black Sabbath, they were they were a band that just broke all the rules. And to me, guys, they were the ultimate garage band. I mean, wouldn't you have loved? I mean, I I I remember walking up Washington Street in Littleton, and there was a band playing in the garage. And that could if that was Black Sabbath, I mean they they they would have they that's just what they remind me of is a the ultimate garage band. And I think that they've been described as that many, many times, and uh and uh Tony Iomie was known as the Riffmaster, and it's very simple to know why. And and and a lot of his riffs are actually quite simple. They're not all that difficult. Although if you try to figure it out, watch it and play guitar, it becomes extremely difficult as he's a left-handed guitar player. You know, obviously got fired from the band and everything. I don't remember why. I mean, I was only 14 or 15 years old. I never did any research. But um, but my god, did he come out of that with an explosion? What an explosion. It was probably the best thing ever for his career. He was never bigger.

Oh, yeah, and there was there was no guarantee leaving Black Sabbath that he was going to be anything. Yep. There was no guarantee of career. It was it was a lot of people were shocked by it the way that he came out of that and just turned into even bigger than than what he done with Sabbath.

Yeah, massive Blizzard of Oz was so huge. I mean, it's unbelievable. I've said it many times on the show that everyone was wearing those shirts. It was just it was yeah, it it was. I mean, I don't know how to explain it.

Most of them probably because the album cover, but because it was awesome. But um that too. If Donnie were here with us tonight, he would be talking about the incredible choices Aussie made with guitar players. And Randy Rhodes obviously had a big hand in that. Um, but I did want to mention uh Lee Kurzlake and Bob Daisley and what the big part they had. I just said we I want to make it about Aussie, but I was going there again because I feel like that if Aussie could have spoken up and said, These guys are writing my music, these guys are playing in my band, why are they getting fucked? Like then Jake Lee, you know, and I just I would love someday, you know, years down the road, to be able to see a documentary of what really happened because Ozzy just always seemed like a genuine happy dude to me, not the type that would fuck people over. He sings songs about getting fucked over constantly. Exactly by other people. Yep, the writ is one of the greatest songs Sabbath ever wrote, in my opinion, and that was about the management they had prior. The uh the writ means contract, and go listen to that song, and it's fucking heavy duty.

Like and you just like that the guitarist that is name name a bad guitarist that's been on stage with Aussie. Can't can't be done, no can do, can't be done to go from Iomie to Rhodes to Brad Gillis to was it Jake come in after that?

Who came in after that? I think I think Jake actually came in after after that, and oh, unless Brad played the live shows in between. Yep.

Yeah, Brad Gillis played. He didn't I don't think Brad recorded with him, he just played on um Diary of a Madman, finished that tour with him, and then that's when I believe Jake came in. And then of course after that was uh Zach Zach.

Yeah, and there's others too, a few others that were in that mix as well. Uh fuck, I wish I could remember because they just mentioned it on that show I was listening to earlier, but but anyway, you know, back to Aussie, just I mean, what he meant to the genre itself is just so I mean Sabbath in general, but Aussie too, and then just one thing that we haven't spoken about is just uh his reality show, okay, which oh no, that absolutely annoyed me. But but people are just that probably couldn't name a fucking Ozzy Osborne song or a Black Sabbath song, are like reaching out and posting stuff online, like yeah, and that's the only one an icon, it really is, and that's huge to me.

A second path to fame, if you will, you know, not that he needed it at that point. Absolutely.

I I didn't watch a lot of it, but I think the overall effect of it was probably a little embarrassing just because of no, just because of his, and I think a lot of it back then he kind of played up his his uh you know evil cloudiness and and he might have, but he might have been that cloudy. I think he was swift enough a lot of times to play a little dumber than he was. Oh, you know what I mean on the show. Yeah, let people underestimate him and and and whatever else. But yeah, maybe not it's I'm sure financially it was friggin' huge, but legacy-wise, I don't know if that was his proudest moment.

I don't know what you're talking about, but I fucking love you.

I can't remember what I was listening to, but he was doing a meet and greet. This wasn't the one that I was talking about like last week, but doing a meet and greet, and like 10 people were walking through the building just to get to the venue where he was playing, and he was out there just mingling with people and saying, you know, oh, you're here for the meet and greeting. They're like, no, no, we're just trying to get to the front. And he's like, No, no, come with me, come with me, and went over, gave them all t shirts, and I don't know. It just he seems so much more genuine, and I want something to come out where they show the real man without the the telephone. Television family without what other fucking band members have to say. Because I think there's a lot of smoke and mirrors here that we don't know because he just always seemed like a good dude to me. I don't know. And that's just my opinion because I know nothing. I could be fucking way off base here. But that's just how he always seemed to me. And he made a big impact in my life. And his music made a big impact on my life. And just I don't know, it hit hard. I like like you were talking about earlier. Here we are doing a show on it right now.

Like if two days ago, we were doing a show comparing back to the beginning to uh kiss my show.

And which now which I also made me think, Mark, it's like they better fucking get on it because only God knows when we're gonna lose one of them. You know what I mean? But yeah, yeah, which is why I'm so happy that they were able to get through that and Ozzy was able to pull it off. Exactly. Yeah.

And it's funny, I was just thinking too, you know, you're talking about how you know who he was, and and he is who you believe he is, right? So to me, it doesn't matter what the reality of it was, what his day-to-day life was. I know that the music that he did touched my life, whether he wrote it or not. And the other thing is, yeah, maybe he didn't write all those lyrics, but would we have heard those songs if it wasn't for Ozzie?

Correct. And he did a lot of the melodies, he did a lot of the vocal melodies that were put to those lyrics. He was a musician, which are as big as a part.

Is would would uh Daisley and Kurzlake? I mean, I know they published with other people, but would they have reached that level if it wasn't for Ozzy Osborne?

No, definitely not. I mean, you got a front man that way, you know, that's with a big name. But I think that would go for anyone that wrote for Joe Schmo or Ozzy, right?

So But one thing I I heard a lot of, you know, because even listening to like uh EEI, which used to be the this morning, used to be the morning show on AEF, and you know, a lot of people were talking about seeing him in concert, and he looked up there, he just looked like even 20 years ago that he was half in the frigging body bag and he would start singing and it was like perfect. And this is live.

We're not talking about uh engineer uh you know, mixing after he said that he went off his meds leading up to the back to the beginning off the pain meds because he wouldn't be he would not have been able to sing with the pain meds and the Parkinson drugs, right? But his answer to that was that singing is my painkiller. Right. And that's you know, and somebody did somebody published the the unedited or or off the board of him singing, and it kind of made me feel like why why are you gonna do that? I mean, we know what he was going through, you know, and it's one thing to have artists that are completely quote unquote healthy today out there with backing tracks and effects and whatever else. But the man was obviously two weeks away from death with stage stage five Parkinson's. Right. Give him a break, you know what I mean? Oh no, absolutely and you don't, yeah, a little touch-up is fine, and you don't have to you don't have to publish the tracks, you know what I mean? It just it seemed a little tasteless to me that somebody did that. Maybe they had a different approach to it and were like, this is what he was going through, or or whatever else, but I kind of like to like to remember it for what it was was was him sitting there saying goodbye to everybody.

Basically, exactly.

Exactly. We were talking about that, and they made it a little more about Ozzy, and I guess now we know why.

Well, yeah, well, we don't know why, because I don't think even they were expecting that. Like, like I said, he did and we also at this point, mind you, we still don't know got did he have a stroke? Like, did something take him quickly that was not expected? Like, we still don't know the cause of death, but I don't think you know, doing a show two weeks ago and a meet and greet a week ago, I don't think he was in hospice or anything like that, you know.

So only God knows the family, but yeah, there was some speculation that that that it was an assisted exit. Um I don't know, and that's between him and his wife and kids if if that's what he decided to do, not right wouldn't be a choice that I would make, but if he did, it was his choice to make. Interesting because because you could see the pain in the Parkinson's on stage, but he didn't look like a guy that was two weeks away from from passing on. But like you said, could have been could have been a stroke. I mean, Parkinson's is a brutal, brutal disease. Um, almost like you know, ALS as well. It's one of those things that just it just shreds you. It just shreds you. So I mean, how fortunate for him and for us that he got to do that because it was obviously something that he wanted to do. I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine having the you know none of us know how we're leaving here, right? But to for however to be fortunate enough to go out and do what you love and say goodbye to your fans and have the world's attention. Yeah, incredible before you walk out the door.

Amazing. Awesome. Well, anyway, we just wanted to get out there and say a couple quick, quick things. You know, it's just a tragic, tragic thing to lose such an icon, and we just wanted to get out there and speak about it. So anyway, R.I.P. to Ozzy Osborne. You know, just incredible. Well, thank you, Kevin. Thank you, AJ. Mindide and brother.

And how, AJ? That was uh that was good.

You know, just therapeutic, if you will, you know. Yeah, good event.

You know, in that genre of our lives.

Yep. Yeah, yeah, a closed chapter, right? Yeah. All right, boys. Always check us out, by the way, at Pasttimes at 80shigh.com. That is 80s for 80s. And uh please email us at pta80H at gmail.com. One more time, as I must say it twice. PTA80H at gmail.com. Check us out on all of the socials too. The TikTok reels, the uh Instagram reels, uh past times at 80s high on Facebook, and don't forget about past timers on 80s high on Facebook where you guys can interact with us. So look forward to hearing from all of you, and thank you so much.

And we are out of being a better friend to me.