Ozzy Osbourne
- Tour
- About
- Highlights
- Testimonials
Tour
There is yet no show to displayAbout
Ozzy Osbourne is a cat with nine lives, a phoenix that always rises from its ashes. Undisputed leader of Black Sabbath, he explodes in solo with his pop tinged titles, becomes the hero of his own reality TV series and regularly makes the tabloids headlines for his sometimes unimaginable escapades.
Because Ozzy Osbourne, by becoming the Prince of Darkness, must have lost some moral values. He thus built his legend on two beheadings. The first is that of a dove whose head he tears off with his teeth in the middle of his record company. The second, a bat that he says he mistook for a plastic toy and that one of his fans threw on stage during a concert. Yes, Ozzy Osbourne is a sick man. But should we reduce him to that?
The answer is no, of course not. Because if he built his character of Prince of Darkness from sulphurous events, the reality is much more nuanced. Regularly accused by worried parents of instilling the devil in their children, he has in fact little in common with a satanist, categorically refusing to play at the festivals they organise. And if Black Sabbath's lyrics were dark, written to frighten, they were actually inspired by biblical imagery.
What's certain, on the other hand, is that he knew how to attract the favours of the general public. By revolutionizing metal by his clear, sometimes nasty vocals, with Black Sabbath at the beginning of his career, he gained his respect. By keeping his anger and switching to pop solo, he released his energy. And by settling in the living rooms of all Americans, presenting the real life of a rockstar with wife and children, he definitely became an emblem in front of which even Marilyn Manson looks pale. And at more than 70 years of age, he still hasn't finished with music, recently delivering his first album in more than 10 years. Who knows what half-crazy project Ozzy still has in store for the future?
Highlights
Ozzy gets kicked out of Black Sabbath
It all started out well. Pioneers of heavy metal, Black Sabbath is all the rage with its heavy riffs and its dark lyrics. Their first album is an immediate success that will never fall down. But in 1979, Ozzy Osbourne, the charismatic leader and figurehead of the band, is thanked. The reason for this? His addiction problems, which regularly endanger the band's tours and recordings. After having known fame, Ozzy reaches the bottom.
Sharon dries her tears
The rebirth of the artist will come through a woman, Sharon Arden, who decides to help him before they fall in love and get married. She put him back on the studio track in 1980, this time as a solo artist. The sound is less saturated, more radio-friendly and if some albums are not unanimously acclaimed by the critics, No More Tears, released in 1991, will be a real success.
The Osbournes, the daily life of a metal worker
52 episodes broadcast over three years on MTV. That's what Ozzy gets into when he signs on for a reality show that follows him and his family on a daily basis in his Los Angeles home. Although criticized for its coarse language (you don't change the Prince of Darkness so easily), the show is a hit and paves the way for many others. And if the singer has once again shocked some of his fans who don't really like this voyeurism, he is now known to everyone. And the sales of Black Rain, released in 2007, will confirm this growing notoriety. It ranks third on the Billboard and marks its biggest commercial success.
After 10 years of absence
A decade without going through the studio hut. His fans were beginning to despair but the Madman is not giving up and makes another shattering comeback. With the astonishing Ordinary Man, he surprises everyone with a magnificent duet with Elton John in a rock ballad. But also with the rapper Travis Scott in Take What You Want with its fatally urban sounds. Ozzy Osbourne is decidedly not determined to hang up the mike and that's just as well!
Testimonials
- The fans speak
- The inside view
- Seen in the press