Episode 11 - A Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath

Hello Everyone! In this episode I discuss the life and legacy of the late, great Ozzy Osbourne. From his humble beginnings to international stardom, Ozzy has paved the way for musicians and artists in the rock and metal communities. His music discusses themes of peace, love, war, spirituality, the occult and the truthful realities of life itself. There will be no other human being like him for he is one of a kind. I hope that he is at peace and will be remembered as someone who was true to himself regardless of what society thought of him. RIP Prince of Darkness! Peace and Love everyone, enjoy!! ☆

"Do what though wilt shall be the whole of the law" - Aleister Crowley

"Discover that which makes you shine, always and forever into infinity"

-Joseph Matthew 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

welcome one and all to the magic music podcast i'm your host joseph matthew and in this series we will be discussing various occult and esoteric practices in music art and culture so sit back relax and let's explore the unknown together enjoy Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 11. I'm sure most of you have heard by now, but unfortunately, the great Ozzy Osbourne has passed away. He passed away on July 22nd, 2025. I'm still kind of in shock, to be honest with you. His passing hit me pretty hard. He and the crew and everyone, they had set up the Back to the Beginning show with Black Sabbath and a bunch of others as a tribute to Ozzy and his career and what he's done in Black Sabbath and just his life and his legacy. Completely unmatched. I mean, Ozzy was definitely one of a kind. I don't think there's another person like him, to be honest with you. His music has influenced so many individuals in the rock and metal community and beyond, too. He was a public figure. He had the reality show The Osbournes for a while. But man, I mean, the Back to the Beginning show, I think they streamed it on pay-per-view. I saw a couple snippets of it. I watched a few of their performances. Tool performed Youngblood. I'm not sure if you guys know who that is, but he's kind of like a new up-and-coming artist, hard rock metal genre. He performed a cover of Changes by Black Sabbath, which was... incredible i mean his his vocal range and just he it was such an amazing performance yeah it's it's sad it's really sad i know he had he had parkinson's disease um for a long time and he had to have i think surgery on his back or something it messed him up pretty pretty bad But yeah, I just thought in this episode, I would just cover Ozzy's life and his legacy. Yeah, what he has done for the world of music. So yeah, let's get into it. So I'll just kind of give a little blip about Ozzy. um his upbringing and stuff so his full name was john michael osborne i believe ozzy was his nickname he was born december 3rd 1948 in birmingham england and birmingham was kind of like a factory town when he was growing up this was kind of like you know right after the war world war ii so you know england was just decimated and they had to get you know everything back up and running so he you know was known for kind of just um he had some kind of odd jobs like in factories and stuff like that and um he got involved in some some petty crimes unfortunately but you know he didn't grow up you know rich or born into a wealthy family. He had to really work for what he wanted and what he believed in. So his nickname is the Prince of Darkness, which I think is awesome. I'm not sure who gave him that nickname, probably just over time, you know, because of his stage antics and things like that. And obviously he was known for being a founding member and frontman of Black Sabbath. Having a successful solo career after he got let go from the band. And also reality TV stardom in the Osbournes with his family. Which was, it's hilarious. I've been watching reruns on it. I think they have, but I forget what channel it is. But it's definitely on one of the free streaming services. So you can go back and watch all the insane, hilarious... shit that they would do as a family it's just like he was such a character man like it's just he was just naturally uh naturally funny for sure just had no idea what the fuck was going on at any given time and trying to raise like you know kids and stuff and deal with all the pets around the house it was just a shit show that's what reality tv is i think they were kind of like a pioneer of of reality television to be honest with you this is back in the early 2000s night i was like maybe probably i was young when it came out i was born in 95 so i was probably like maybe seven or eight years old um but i've seen episodes when i was younger and it was just this guy's hilarious to be to go from being this really kind of like scary like insane stage persona that he had to just being a family man it was such a such a contrast but it showed that like you know he was he was a real real person super down to earth and super honest so yeah his early life he grew up in a working-class family uh in aston birmingham He struggled in school due to dyslexia and apparently left at the age of 15. He had brief stints in factory jobs and petty crime, and ultimately he turned to music as an escape from all that. He said in various interviews that his main influence was the Beatles, which, you know, listening to Sabbath and the solo stuff, you know, you wouldn't really make that connection. At least I never did. But now that I look back, I can kind of, kind of see like certain songs, you know, where Beatles-esque or influenced, you know, and he had a quote, I think he said that, you know, when the Beatles came on, it was like, you know, listening to their music, like going to bed and waking up and the world was, was, in color you know seeing the full like spectrum of things like it was unlike anything that he probably heard before and it was so like you know they pushed the boundaries so yeah it's a really interesting fact about about him so the black sabbath era he was the guys were young when they started so i think they i believe they started in 1968 um and then to 1979 and that's when ozzy got fired from the band for doing too many drugs you know he has he's obviously known for um all that stuff and you know just going off the rails with it unfortunately so Yeah, for over, what was that, like over 10 years, 11 years? To be in Sabbath. So in 1968, Ozzy joined Black Sabbath alongside Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. So Tony Iommi was the guitarist, or is the guitarist for Black Sabbath. Geezer Butler played bass guitar. and Bill Ward played drums. And they were credited with inventing heavy metal music by, I guess, kind of melding blues rock with dark and occult-influenced themes. So instead of making run-of-the-mill pop songs, what set Sabbath apart, at least for me, was the fact that they were tapping into like kind of this this darkness that i feel exists within all of us they kind of pulled back the curtain on you know these dark and up things like behind the scenes Man, I can't even tell you, man. Black Sabbath was just a huge influence on me. I remember the first time... The first song I think I heard by them was... I believe it was Iron Man. I think that was probably the first song. And they have a ton of hits. And Iron Man, obviously, is one of their big ones. But... just painting this picture of you know this guy that gets like you know he helps people and then they turn on him almost like frankenstein you know that's kind of like he helps people and then he eventually destroys them because he realizes oh like these people aren't they're they're evil you know they're not good But to be able to paint a picture with lyrics and instruments, they did it so well with just being a four-piece. It still blows my mind. You could still listen to any Sabbath record. It sounds like it was made yesterday. It really does. And it stands up on its own. You know, it doesn't get lost in like, you know, static of all these other bands that have been influenced by them right like no one like pushed them to the side like sabbath is the the og like sabbath is the one they are the ones that helped push like the genre forward and they probably had a vision and they just executed it probably just seeing all of the factories and the filth and like the destruction of the war like that takes a toll on you and they were their 20s they were like rebellious they were trying to get out of that and go somewhere else that was up for like a better future for them so i mean all of sabbath's albums are pretty iconic um it's hard to even sit here and like rank the albums because I don't know. I could sit here all day and just rattle off songs that I like and stuff, but I don't know, man. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the record they made in 1973, that's probably my favorite one out of the bunch because just the riffs on that, Killing Yourself to Live, um the song sabbath bloody sabbath where it has that just incredible like really dark twisted like breakdown at the end which still i guess it still holds up it's still like you listen to that you're like oh my god like it's so it's so good it's so heavy but man yeah i mean obviously their first album self-titled Black Sabbath, Paranoid, which features Iron Man, War Pigs, and the song Paranoid, Masters of Reality, and 71. Again, there's just so many. You can just go through all of their discography and just listen to all the songs. Every single one, even the deep cuts are good too. They had a lot of acoustic songs too. where Tony Iommi was just fiddling around on acoustic guitar. And, yeah, their music was just heavier and much darker than anything at the time. Like, I feel like the music, you know, that was on the charts back then in, like, the late 60s, early 70s, it was, like, very, like, hey, like, don't look over here where all this fucked up shit is happening. Look over here. We're going to try to distract you with this, like, really upbeat, like, you know, kind of bubblegum pop, like, music, and just dance, it's fine, just dance, like, don't worry about the wars that are happening, and, you know, all the fucked up shit, it was all distraction, but Sabbath, like, they were real, and I think that's why they, they're so good, is because they, people sensed, like, oh my god, like, they're talking about real shit that other people don't want to talk about, they want to bury it, And, you know, Ozzy had a very, very distinct voice. It was really just... It was really haunting and, like, almost ghostly. Coupled with... I just have to say, like, coupled with Tony Iommi's... His riffs... And his guitar tone. I think, like, that combination, and obviously Geezer Butler... They all had... something to bring to the table they all had a specific tone and a quality when they all came together it was just like this perfect blended sonic landscape of just pure darkness and brutality but they you know they It was very optimistic as well. It wasn't like, you know, you would listen to their albums and be like, oh, I'm so depressed. Like, no, it almost like shocked you. Like, oh, whoa, like that, that fucked me up a little bit. So when I was like, let me see, when I was about 13, that's when I picked up the bass guitar. And I remember sitting there and, you know, thinking to myself like, oh, like, what could I learn on bass? and you know geezer butler was a huge influence on my playing like his style was very like groovy and like open-ended and kind of jazzy you know too like the first sabbath record there were some kind of like jazzy parts on it you know which is really cool um how they kind of had a little bit of that background jazz, blues, funk, and then they all kind of coalesced into that style that they're known for. But man, like, I remember hearing War Pigs, like putting headphones on, and I was probably listening through like a laptop or my computer or something at the time when I was 13, trying to learn how to play like War Pigs and N.I.B., and yeah just a lot of and paranoid you know i was part of like a bunch of jam groups back in the day where we would cover like sabbath songs and and metal and other um and rock and that type of genre so i kind of cut my teeth like on on sabbath back in the day and that's why you know their music means so much to me you know i've always just i've always bumped sabbath like there's never never a time to not like bump sabbath i feel like you can be at like Someone's birthday party or at the beach or like, you know on a fucking mountain somewhere It fits wherever you go But man like what stood out to me About like the song war pigs was not just the instrumentation itself but like the lyrics I Have never heard anything like it and I don't think I've ever heard anything like it since I Just, you know, the lines that stuck out to me, man, like, obviously, you know, when Ozzy sings, like, you know, generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses, immediately paints, and Ozzy's probably a big influence on why I'm into this stuff anyway, like, into the occult shit, because he painted this picture for me when I was younger of, like, I saw, like, you can visualize in your head these Military generals sitting in a room talking about how they're going to fuck people up. And it's like they're using like this sorcery and this dark black magic to like inflict pain, destruction and death. And it's like that picture was so terrifying, but it like brought you back to this core thing of like, oh, I'm not like that. And I know the difference between good and evil, but just having that image in your head of like, oh my God, like this is like, it already sets you down this path. Like, I mean, I can just read off the lyrics. Yeah, so generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of death's construction. So like Ozzy was like imbuing like this mysticism into it, comparing these people to magicians almost of like, okay, we have this power. We have the resources. What are we going to do with it? In the fields, the body's burning as the war machine keeps turning. Death and hatred to mankind poisoning their brainwashed minds. It's so like poetic. I mean, it was probably a, It is for sure an anti-war song. And again, this is why I try on this podcast to make the distinction between black magic versus white magic, what's good and what's evil. This is an anti-war song. He's not saying, oh yeah, let's start a war. I don't think anyone really wants that. He's just pointing it out, that this is probably what happens, that a bunch of demented people get together and realize, how can we just exert ourselves over these individuals? Politicians hide themselves away. They only started the war. Why should they go out to fight? They leave that all to the poor. Time will tell on their power minds. Making war just for fun. Treating people just like pawns in chess. Wait till their judgment day comes. Again, this still resonates now. You know, you have people that like to start war. They push a button and they go and hide. You know, and they expect other people to fight for them. Which, yeah, it's fucked up. And then this is the one that really, the last... The second verse, like after the guitar solo. Now in darkness, world stops turning. Ashes were their bodies burning. No more war pigs have the power. Hand of God has struck the hour. Day of judgment, God is calling. On their knees, the war pigs crawling. Begging mercies for their sins. satan laughing spreads his wings i remember like listening to this song for the first time and that just that the satan laughing spreads his wings like i was my mouth like hit the floor because like i've never heard anything like that it wasn't pop music you know it was just like this real thing of like oh my god like these people are getting what they deserve like they will get what they deserve in time And me being like 13, I'm like, oh my God, like, this is so cool. Like, you know, just listening to all this music and that really stuck with me. Like that, that image, you know, and it's not evil. It's saying that like, you know, their judgment day is here and they're going to be punished for their crimes. And, you know, it's all that there's a lot of messed up. stuff that's happening right now I don't want to get really like political on uh on this podcast but man I mean I can draw like similarities to what's happening with Israel and you know the Gaza Strip right now and all the Palestinians that are being uh slaughtered because they're just different right and all the children that are being starved to death over there. And they're blocking food from getting over there and aid because they just feel like it, you know, their powerful state. And again, like I said, everyone has their opinions on this, but I think, you know, general consensus is like, you know, their time will come. Everyone's aware of what's happening. There's more eyes on it now. Like we're seeing a genocide in like real time. And, you know, I hope it doesn't escalate even further. Like, but... Again, we just have to hope. But, you know, this will never stop. There will always be insane people in power that love to just... Yeah, make war just for fun. Like, they have nothing better to do. They have so much money and so much power that they try to... Then they're bored. They own all the shit that they want. And they're like, hmm, what else can I do? Hmm. Maybe I can like buy people. Maybe I can like just fund these things that happen, these horrific things that happen. But anyway, sorry for the politically charged rant, but we just shouldn't kill fucking humans. Like I think at the end of the day, we shouldn't kill humans, especially babies and children. So I think that's just a unanimous thing, I think. Ozzy was fired in 1979. due to escalating substance abuse and internal tensions. So they were very popular for the time. I mean, they got a lot of bad reviews and shit, but in terms of just like, they sold out performances, like they were on the bill with some very, very high profile acts. And yeah, being in a band for 11 years, you don't know what you have till it's gone. And unfortunately at Drugs, takes a huge toll. I mean, you can look up stories about Ozzy's crazy drug-fueled days. And when he was younger, he really, really struggled with that, unfortunately. And it's sad, but sometimes you need something to cope with the fame and the pressure and to help you write a song. So I really feel for him, but I'm sure he didn't want to do it on purpose or wanted to be a bad person on purpose. It happens. All right, so his solo career started in 1980. So he jumped right into a solo career instead of getting depressed or just stopping or whatever. So I think that's really good that he just had the drive and the motivation. I'm sure he was pissed to be fired. He persevered, and then that's what kind of shot him into stardom was the solo career. So Randy Rhoads, I think Ozzy finding Randy was like just crucial for... Blizzard of Oz was iconic. I mean, you have Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley, which, you know, talked about Aleister Crowley in the past. Having a song dedicated to him is like, you know, it's pretty cool. He knew about the cult and... religious themes and darkness and all this stuff so it probably just it tickled his fancy you know he was like oh this is cool i'm gonna write about this stuff so he's very into like spiritualism and stuff like i don't think he was a very religious person i'm not too sure but he did pray or say a prayer before every show that he did but i don't think he was like a practice like i don't know if he went to church at all but He believes in, like, the themes of, you know, being a Christian, I guess, and God and Jesus and stuff. Yeah, his other hit albums, I mean, Diary of a Madman, In 81, No More Tears, Osmosis, Ordinary Man. You know, the list just goes on and on. Like, everything that he did just turned to gold. You know, it's like... He was such an icon and he just didn't really, honestly, he was just himself. He didn't really have to try. And I think if you're just yourself and you don't force things to happen and you just do things naturally and you're honest, then I think you'll go pretty far. There was a lot of controversy, you know, surrounding him and his public persona. He became infamous for his onstage antics, including, you know, biting the head off a bat, not on purpose. By mistake, he thought it was a toy bat. Had to get, like, rabies shots. But, like, I can't even imagine, like, you know, biting the head off a bat and, like, realizing, like, oh, shit, like, what did I just do? And that was 1982. He was arrested, you know, for public intoxication. Um... legal battles over song lyrics allegedly inspiring teen suicides and that happened with like judas priest too there was a big thing in the 80s where they were trying to go after a lot of these artists like twisted sister like that said that like oh oh you're forcing these kids to kill themselves and it's like well no that's not the case it's just like they're reading much into the lyrics i think like you know and they're just not you know unfortunately maybe not mentally well so i don't really blame the bands too much because like if you ask the bands what the songs are about it's like not about suicide or anything it could be like struggles with suicide but like they're not saying hey go out and like kill yourself like no they're just like maybe speaking from experience or maybe they know someone that did something so nine times out of ten it's not like malicious A song is a song, and you can imbue whatever you want into it. Sometimes there's a clear message, sometimes there's an underlying message, and you just kind of find what's right for you. And despite the controversies, he has always maintained a persona, mixing his dark, twisted theatrics with self-deprecating humor, and I think that's what... He didn't take himself too seriously. I don't know if Ozzy would be... know such an icon if he wasn't really like self-deprecating you know if he took himself really seriously like i'm the prince of darkness like worship me like then i don't know like it would just sound it doesn't seem like real you know so the imbuing the humor into it i think was what made it like more palatable for um for his fans the 2000s ozzy starred in the osbournes which was i think a groundbreaking um reality show so that was with his wife sharon and um his kids jack and kelly and it made him a household name just beyond music and that's i think it helped him a lot in his career just you know being just being silly like this is a day in the life of of ozzy osbourne this like crazy musician um he would just like you know mumble things and act and just be confused it was kind of sad you know but he was probably going through all this health crap and to have it be filmed this is a little weird when you think about it and he just had this eccentric personality his wife uh sharon was very pivotal in his you know solo career i think and what happened beyond black sabbath they got married in 1982 and what she did was like basically managed his career and helped him with his sobriety because there was a period of time where he was sober and then he would kind of fall back into it but he was like really tried to just stay stay as sober as possible Apparently Ozzy had six children from two different marriages. He's been very open about his lifelong battles with addiction, mental health, and Parkinson's disease. And he was diagnosed in 2019 with that. So I've watched interviews with him and he speaks very, very openly about that. And I think that's good not to try to hide this or be like, oh, I'm strong enough to deal with this. No, I mean, it's okay to not be strong. You know, it's okay to just be open, especially with like the public. You know, it's hard to share information with the public, but if you're just honest, you know, people look at it like a different way. So his legacy. Definitely, he is one of the founding fathers of heavy metal. He paved the way along with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. Other acts like, you know, like Zeppelin and Deep Purple and Foghat Blue Cheer, Motorhead like, you know, everything just coalesced To create what heavy metal is now and it's so different than what it was. I mean a lot of it now There's a ton of those really really heavy breakdowns and like screams and all this stuff. It's just evolved and it will keep evolving and He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Black Sabbath in 2006. And he was the winner of several Grammy Awards and a Global Icon Award at the MTV Europe Music Awards. I think all in all, you know, he will be surely missed by millions and millions and millions of people. And... I think he has passed the torch onto the next generation. I'm excited to see what the future holds for hard rock and heavy metal. Thank you so much, guys, for listening. And yeah, just go bump some Sabbath, man. Just go... I'm definitely going to listen to some after this. I've been listening to Sabbath ever since the Back to the Beginning show. Really inspired, you know. I think like the past, the past like month I took a break from making episodes because of just, you know, life stuff that was going on. But to see that and to see his final performance with Black Sabbath, all four original members that they're all still alive, you know, besides Ozzy. You know, and for him to pass away, like, two weeks later, you know, it was very, very poetic. He even joked that he was gonna die, like, at, like, while he was performing. Which, you know, very, very well may, could have, you know. But he stuck it out, and he wanted to say one last goodbye. And when they played Paranoid as the final song, it was like, this is the final song, like, this is it. It's like, man, everything comes to an end, but is it the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? Life goes on, and wherever Ozzy is now, his spirit, his soul, you know, I hope that he finds peace, you know, because deep down, I can tell he was a good person, I think, you know, as long as he will live on. So, guys, thanks for listening, and I will... Catch you next time.