41. Ozzy Osbourne – Ozzmosis
It’s summer again and, like every summer for the past few years, my cousin Andy is telling Chris and me that we listen to the best music.
Andy’s only a year younger than me and I get a serious s kick out of how annoyed he gets when instead of his name I call him “Junior” and “Squirt” and “Sport” and “Tiger.” He’s from Missouri and it’s our new tradition that every year he come to Florida to spend a couple weeks in Palm Coast, to hang out with my brother and me and Matt Clay and Jose, who we affectionately refer to Our Puerto Rican Friend Jose. Or Joselito. Depending on the context.
Chris and I are still young, probably 17 and 15 at the oldest, and it’s not that we’re introducing Andy to anything esoteric or weird. It’s more that where he’s from—the in-the-middle-of-nowhere chunk of rural land just outside of St Louis called Hillsboro, where he races dirt bikes and has to travel 20 minutes to the nearest grocery—he’s used to listening to country and a bit of rap. So the radio rock we send him back home with, usually, seems pretty new.
Metallica, Trust Company, Van Halen, A Perfect Circle—these were all in the rotation at one time or another. But this year, it’s Ozzy, and we’ve been playing a lot of “Over the Mountain” and “Mr. Crowley” and “Flying High Again” to set the mood.
When it came to full albums, though, the only ones we ever really committed to were Ozzmosis and Down to Earth—probably because of their 1995 and 2001 release dates. That was right around the time “The Prince of Darkness” became a regular in the Cavaliere spin cycle.
Everybody likes to bring up the “bat head” episode when Ozzy comes up in conversation but for me, I guess you just had to be there. I never cared much about the “evil Ozzy” theatrics, probably because I wasn’t alive yet for most of them. Instead, I was floored by the idea that Sabbath had fired this guy and how he ended up being one of the most iconic figures in the history of rock, ever, a “godfather of heavy metal.” When I came around, the Ozzy I knew was harmless, funny even. He had his own reality show with his wife and kids; he was getting old and holding onto his art for dear, dear life; and he was making self-demystification albums like Down to Earth* and Ozzmosis, a piece, unlike Down to Earth, that I can’t help but label a career benchmark.
*The opening lyrics of Down to Earth are: “I’m not the kind of person you think I am / I’m not the antichrist or the Iron Man”
With surprisingly graceful instrumentation by guest musicians Zakk Wylde and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Rob Trujillo of Metallica, Steve Vai and ex-David Lee Roth guitarist Joe Holmes, and keyboards by Yes’ Rick Wakeman, the album is as emotional—even sometimes to the point of being “pretty”—as it is hardcore and flat-out cool. Where Down to Earth sometimes forces the whole “I’ve grown up” theme, Ozzmosis seems comfortable to let it speak for itself. The album is good because it almost seems unaware of its blossomed maturity, not losing the edge that bands often misplace when they realize they’re not kids anymore.
I don’t expect everyone to be into music like Ozzy’s. In fact, I might go so far to say that, to really appreciate him, in some way you had to have been bred on his sound, indoctrinated on it, almost. My indoctrination was hearing his unlikely (read: really kinda bad… like a fox) rock voice playing in the CD player of my first car. It was playing digital files of it that I’d downloaded on AOL at 56k. It was having it on in the background while Andy, Chris, Mattclay and I laid around on couches and carpet in the middle of lazy summer days playing “What do you wanna do?”
What you definitely don’t have to grow up with to appreciate, though, is Ozzy’s spirit. After being canned from one of the biggest rock groups in the world, ruining himself on drugs to the point of becoming a public laughing stock; after he begins mumbling, stuttering instead of talking and taking tiny, cautious steps around the house like an old man, he still had enough life to try the reinvention thing. And Down to Earth in 2001 wasn’ t his final encore, either; in just a couple months he’ll be releasing yet another solo album, called Scream. He’s 62 years old.
Good or bad, fan or not, Ozzy’s Ozzy for a reason. He may have made his bones on buckets of blood and black trench coats, but albums like Ozzmosis prove that there’s real artistry there, an understanding that with enough belief in the form, hard rock can serve a thousand purposes at once, be the goddess or the whore, defile as swiftly as it can save. And if you’re still not convinced, you’ve at least got to give it to him for, if nothing else, being one of the most enduring figures in rock n’ roll—warts and all.
Listen:
Honorary Mention(s): Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill; Weezer – Blue Album
Between Hootie, Third Eye, Green Day and now Ozzy, maybe I should just call it a day, add “The Macarena” to the 40s portion of my list and give it the title it really deserves: Honorary 90s Nostalgia List.
As such, no nostalgia reel would be complete without mention of the two albums above. About Weezer, I’ll just say that it should be mentioned. “My Name is Jonas” was not a song I took lightly in 3rd grade. About Alanis, I’ll say that for a while Jagged Little Pill had a legit spot on my list but was, unfortunately, sidelined for space. Since its release all those years ago, I’ve still to find few, few female musicians who earn their keep the way Alanis does in this album. It works not only because her voice is so incredible and the crazy ways she manipulates it are so consistently cool; but mostly, it works as a testament to anger. Becoming indignant can be a huge part of the grief/coping/”moving on” process, and in case you’re too afraid to get there yourself, Jagged Little Pill has enough venom in it to go around. “All I Really Want” and “You Oughta Know” stand as awesome proof of that.
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