“I don’t want to change the world
I don’t want the world to change me”
1
“Black Sabbath” was too far out there.
You’ve got to remember, in 1970 Led Zeppelin was considered heavy metal. Sabbath had a new, younger audience. Despite getting terrible reviews, the band gained traction. Kind of like KISS. But KISS was flamboyant, the fantasy of middle class players (and listeners!), Sabbath was dark and dirty and the band came from Birmingham, not London. What other acts came from Birmingham? The Move, which never broke here. And the Moody Blues, but by time they hit with “Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin” they were aligned with London. But Birmingham? Industrial, anything but Carnaby Street/lovey-dovey.
But by time the second album came out, AOR had permeated the hinterlands, you were no longer a victim of AM Top 40. And this was before Lee Abrams shortened the playlist, such that people heard “Iron Man” and “Paranoid” and Black Sabbath gathered more and more fans.
But were still despised by the cognoscenti, who gave a pass for prog rock but abhorred meat and potatoes bands like Grand Funk. As for Sabbath? They were in their own world. Their own alienated world.
And there are a lot of alienated people in America. Then and even more now. And Black Sabbath spoke to them and has continued to speak to them. Sometime in the nineties the younger generations cottoned to Sabbath, Ozzy became a legend, but before that…
2
How in the hell do you kick the lead singer out of your band? This made no sense. And now Ozzy Osbourne was going to make SOLO ALBUMS? This rarely worked, and Ozzy was not seen as a musical genius. But somehow he got hooked up with Randy Rhoads, who’d left Quiet Riot, after two Japanese albums but long before they broke through in America, and now Ozzy was all over the airwaves, more than he ever was with Sabbath, Ozzy was a STAR!
But I still hated him.
As a matter of fact, Michael Jensen was working with him and gave me a copy of the live album, which I ultimately threw out, because I was afraid someone would come over and see it and judge me negatively.
But then came “No More Tears.”
Randy Rhoads was long gone. MTV was shifting into long-form content and hip-hop. And suddenly Ozzy Osbourne triumphs with a new guitarist, Zakk Wylde, and that’s when I got on board. “No More Tears” was hooky and HEAVY!
“Would you like some sweeties little girl?
Come a little closer
I’m gonna show you a brand new world tonight”
This was DANGEROUS! Despite being sued for “Suicide Solution,” Ozzy wasn’t pulling back, he was DOUBLING DOWN! While everybody else was shearing off the rough edges to be MTV compatible, Ozzy didn’t care. He was rejuvenated. This was the sound of the seventies, albeit with a lot more hooks. It was STUNNING!
Now eventually “Mama, I’m Coming Home” became an AOR and MTV standard. But that was long after the album came out. To discover it blind, upon first play, you were caught off guard, Ozzy could do sensitive no problem, without sacrificing, without becoming a wimp.
The album continued with “Desire,” which was in your face and heavy, another winner. But what put the album over the top, what showed Ozzy not only was still at it, but eclipsed all comers, was “No More Tears.” There was that heavy bass intro… This is headbanging music, this is what you put on when you want to squeeze out the rest of the world and be in your own space.
And I did. I put the disc in the CD player, cranked it up and shook my body and played something akin to air guitar, I LOVE this music. This is not today’s Active Rock… There was melody, changes, understandable lyrics and Ozzy could SING!
No more tears!
No more tears!
No more tears!
This was a tour-de-force, with that vibrating bass at the bottom and the crunchy guitars on top. Recorded pristinely with all the new techniques, this was beyond magic, this was everything you wanted, faders pushed all the way, the Millennium Falcon in hyperdrive.
And then deeper into the LP there was the driving beat of the Lemmy co-write HELLRAISER! Lemmy ultimately recorded his own version, and it’s great, but Ozzy’s is one step beyond.
“I’m living on an endless road
Around the world for rock and roll
Sometimes it feels so tough
But I still ain’t had enough”
Not enough, NEVER ENOUGH! This was the rock and roll ethos. This was the job. It came with drugs, alcohol and groupies, but that was all. You were not a brand, you sold t-shirts but you didn’t get involved with the Fortune 500, you were too dangerous, you were the OTHER! And that was just fine with you.
“Feeling all right in the noise and the light But that’s what lights my fire”
A pre-chorus! Ozzy was a huge Beatles fan. He learned all the lessons, he learned all the tricks.
And the drums are pounding and the guitars are sawing and…
“Hellraiser, in the thunder and heat
Hellraiser, rock you back in your seat
Hellraiser, and I’ll make it come true
Hellraiser, I’ll put a spell on you”
The rest of the acts were wearing spandex, cleaned up for mainstream consumption, and Ozzy was still down and dirty. This is the music you listened to while you drank beer and went wild, not worrying about the consequences, this is the music that infected you and drove you, this was ROCK AND ROLL!
3
Now I had to see him.
I’d gotten the CD from Epic, I was just giving it a chance, and now I was hooked. So I got ahold of the label and got tickets for the show at the Universal Amphitheatre. I took Jeff Laufer, who kept telling me to be prepared.
Yeah, right.
But Ozzy was crazier than the audience. Throwing water not only on them, but himself. Imploring everybody to go F*CKING CRAZY! It was a cross between heavy metal and a cartoon. And it felt so good.
And this is when I realized all those songs from early in Ozzy’s solo career…I knew them and dug them.
I couldn’t get over “Flying High Again,” not that I ever knew that was the title of the song, it was indecipherable as it came out of my car speakers every weekend, it was an FM staple.
“Mama’s going to worry
I’ve been a bad, bad boy
No use saying sorry
It’s something that I enjoy”
This was 1981, before MTV embraced metal. All you had was the record and the rags. Listening you’d think the song title was something about mama worrying. As for “flying high again,” I couldn’t make it out over the airwaves.
And there was the energy of Randy Rhoads’s guitar. Anybody can play guitar, anybody can learn the licks, but extracting a sound that inspires and levitates, that’s a special skill.
I’d learned to love “Flying High Again,” even if I didn’t know its title. But at the concert I realized I knew all of Ozzy’s hits and this show made me LOVE THEM! “Crazy Train,” “Goodbye to Romance,” “Mr. Crowley,” “Over the Mountain,” “Shot in the Dark”… I was a fan and didn’t even know it! Seeing Ozzy live brought it all together, made me a BELIEVER!
4
So my nephew Blake told me I had to come upstairs to hear something, he had to play me a record. He was eight.
He was so excited. We got upstairs, he dropped the needle on this LP, and he played me PARANOID!
He’s looking me in the eye. And then he starts banging his head to the music. I was both amazed and amused. It was a great experience. BUT HOW DID HE KNOW THIS RECORD!
Whatever he said, I don’t remember.
But when Ozzy went back on the road in support of “Ozzmosis,” I took him to the Forum to see it, his very first concert. Those in our row were amazed, that not only was he at the show, but it was his FIRST!
When Ozzy hit the stage, Blake stood up and banged his head, danced just like Beavis and Butthead. Made me smile.
5
I wanted the subsequent albums to be as good as “No More Tears,” they weren’t, but I listened. Actually, Ozzy’s last work, with Andrew Watt, recaptured the magic, but by this time the scene had changed. Nobody dominated, a new album release didn’t impact the culture at large, no matter who the act was. Whereas when Ozzy ruled, we all knew the hits. Because they were all over the radio and MTV.
But Ozzy kept working.
There were the Ozzfests, innovative in their own way, ultimately featuring Black Sabbath reunions, something we thought we’d never see.
And then there was the TV show…
Ozzy was made to be a bumbling clown. A man out of time. An old rocker living in a mansion years later. The show made Sharon a star, a household name, the kids, other than Aimee, who chose not to be in it, milked it, but Ozzy either screamed for Sharon or was sitting on the couch…
Writing lyrics in his notebook. He was still a rock star. This was what he did, it was inspiring.
And then he had his ATV accident and Sharon was all over TV and Ozzy kind of faded into the background and now he’s dead.
How weird is this? Just after the tribute show/celebration? This never happens. The tribute usually comes after the death, or long before, this is eerie. I was stunned when I found out Ozzy passed, became numb. I was surprised I was so affected. But when you strip away all the dross, all the externalities, Ozzy Osbourne was just another nobody from nowhere who heard the Beatles and decided I CAN DO THAT! And he wanted to do that. And he stuck with it. And truly became crazy, to the point of being kicked out of his own band, I mean how much do you have to drink, and then he came back solo, stronger than ever! This is not the typical rock star arc. And it’s not the arc of the hoi polloi. Making it from nothing, destroying your career AND COMING BACK?
Ozzy was known by everybody, weird to use the past tense now. And there are multiple images. But if you were his contemporary, if you were alive and saw it all, you know that first and foremost Ozzy was a frontman, who wrote the lyrics, the guy who got on that crazy train and lived the rock and roll lifestyle and continued to do so for DECADES!
Until today.
6
Whatever I write Sharon won’t be happy. She learned her scorched earth style from her father, who ripped-off Sabbath and by time he was seen in “The Osbournes” was a dawdling old man with dementia.
The truth is that sans Sharon, Ozzy never would have made it as a solo act. She deserves all the credit. But god forbid you don’t agree with her vision, you’re EXCORIATED!
I know from personal experience.
And at this point, everybody’s got their own experience. Not only those rockers at the recent show, but individuals.
Upon hearing the news, Felice texted me:
“I remember when he was out on his patio at Malibu and looked over at us and said – ‘Isn’t this f*cking great?!'”
Yes, Ozzy lived next door…not from the Liverpool docks to the Hollywood Bowl, but from gritty Birmingham to the beach in sunny California. If that ain’t living the dream.
And when you listen to the music, you too are living the dream. You don’t see the TV show in your head, you don’t listen casually, because Ozzy demands total attention, whether solo or with Sabbath, that’s the kind of music he made. Always in your face. Never compromised.
And somehow by doing it his own way it resonated with everybody, Ozzy is more famous now than he’s ever been, everybody knows who he is, and his music. He did it HIS WAY! And TRIUMPHED!
Well, until he died.
It’s all over now. We used to love not only Ozzy, but rock and roll. But it’s in the rearview mirror. The formula seems to have been lost. Like I said, the jokes in Active Rock wearing their leather making noise…that appeals to few, whereas Ozzy Osbourne’s music appealed to MANY!
Sabbath was innovative, to the point where most people didn’t even get it in the early days. But when Ozzy found the formula, he didn’t really change it that much, he just dug deeper, found new ways to do it, sounding fresh all the while, which is an amazing achievement.
Ozzy was sui generis, one of a kind. We may never see his likes again. He burned brightly and his flame was snuffed out today, but his aura, it still shines.
CODA
“Standing at the crossroads, world spinning ’round and ’round Know which way I’m going, you can’t bring me down Don’t you try to teach me no original sin I don’t need your pity for the shape I’m in”
This is not the groupthink of today. This is what we’ve lost. Ozzy was happy in who he was, he didn’t care what you thought, stop telling him to change. Furthermore, you’re expecting me to believe that religious story? My religion is ROCK AND ROLL!
And he’s not wavering:
“Tell me I’m a sinner, I’ve got news for you I spoke to God this morning and he don’t like you”
You’re not the only one who can dish it out, as a matter of fact, I’ve got more fans than you do, here’s the middle finger to you!
“Don’t tell me stories ’cause yesterday’s glories Have gone away, so far away I’ve heard it said there’s a light up ahead Lord I hope and pray I’m here to stay”
Sure, Ozzy sang the hits, but he kept making new albums, unlike many of his contemporaries. There was always something over the horizon that he was searching for.
But not anymore.
“I don’t want to change the world
I don’t want the world to change me”
Stop telling me who to be, to do it your way, just let me be. But no, you want to be in my face, putting me down.
And it’s not only Ozzy, it’s ME!
Maybe it’s you too. We don’t fit into this world, but when we hear Ozzy’s music not only does it make us feel all right, it inspires us to carry on, march forward, for new experiences, for a better life.
That’s the essence of rock and roll. You were bitten by the bug, you just had to listen, you just had to participate. You built your whole world around it. There were heroes, icons, and Ozzy Osbourne was one of them. He was a guiding light. I mean how much more simply can you say it?
“I don’t want to change the world
I don’t want the world to change me”
Everybody’s in your business. Just let us be.
This is a fight I’ve been enduring my entire life. I’m going to hear from zillions that they were Ozzy fans earlier, that I got it wrong, that they have the key and I missed the plot.
Why are you trying to make me feel bad, change me, make me beholden to you? I heard this music and it affected me.
And I’m not the only one.
