Listen, I know Ozzy Osbourne could barely string two chords together on a guitar, but the Black Sabbath bat-biting maniac knew precisely what it took to be a great guitarist.
There’s been a lot of reflective talk in the weeks since Ozzy passed away. Each member of Black Sabbath brought their own superpower to the mix, an absolutely maddening concoction that made them a rock juggernaut and a pivotal role in pioneering heavy metal. Due to the musical prowess of the company he surrounded himself with, Osbourne didn’t need to play any other instrument apart from his voice.
Ozzy managed to pick up a bloody helpful knack for melodies from a young age, something the man himself attributed to studying the work of The Beatles as an obsessive fan. While the image of Osbourne with bat blood running down his mouth might seem like a departure from four mop top lads from Liverpool, it was the melody that brought Black Sabbath’s music to life, and without this skill, they would never have gone on to hit such magnificent heights.
Of course, Tony Iommi’s role in the band also can’t be downplayed. Not only was he Black Sabbath’s principal songwriter, but Iommi can do things on a guitar that very few others could even dream of being able to achieve.
Working with Iommi also set a high bar for any other guitarist that Osbourne collaborated with in his post-Sabbath career. He continued to work with technically gifted axe-swingers like Jake E Lee and Randy Rhoads, who viewed rock music through the same lens as Ozzy.
While stylistically it may not have been a suitable musical marriage, Osbourne was also full of appreciation for the gunslinging technique of AC/DC’s Angus Young. The two shared a friendship after AC/DC supported Black Sabbath on the road in 1977, winning themselves a legion of fans, including Osbourne.
In a video which was shown at the premiere of the AC/DC: Live at River Plate concert film, Osbourne shared his initial thoughts on the band upon first seeing them, stating, “I remember thinking, ‘These can’t be around touring using so much energy at every concert’.”
It was Angus Young who particularly impressed him, with Osbourne adding, “Angus is like a machine that never stops. He keeps going and going. He still got the fucking energy, man. They are a really great bunch of guys. They are my friends, are real people.”
His love extends to the entire AC/DC pack, too. “I love them all, God bless them. There is no other band in the world like them. They are a meat-and-potatoes band. There is no bollocks, there is no fucking around. Whether you like them or you don’t and I’m proud to say I love them,” Osbourne continued.
Young may now be an elder statesman of rock ‘n’ roll who is not quite brimming with the same level of vivacious energy as he was when AC/DC supported Black Sabbath in 1977, but he’s still putting other artists, decades younger, to shame with the vigour he pours into every performance.
While AC/DC are often scrutinised for their lack of musical progression over the decades, they are proud to know what they are and, in a statement of authenticity, have never put up a pretence to be anything else. Similarly, Ozzy never strayed too far away from his area of expertise and wore his ‘Prince of Darkness‘ moniker as a crown.