Ozzy Osbourne- Blizzard of Ozz 45th Anniversary 9-15

Ten years after cutting the template with Black Sabbath for all Heavy Metal rock to follow, lead singer Ozzy Osbourne had precious little to show for it: fired from Black Sabbath and left with no band, no record label, and no prospects. The daughter of Black Sabbath’s manager thought that there might be a career path forward for Ozzy as a solo act, which would provide her a chance to establish herself as a talent manager as well, so she did secure one release. But when Blizzard of Ozz was released in Osbourne’s native UK, not one record company in the all-important North American territory would take a meeting to distribute it, regarding Ozzy Osbourne as washed up.

Beginning with Blizzard of Ozz, for the next forty-five years Ozzy Osbourne would make those so-called experts eat their words, at times selling more albums in a month than Black Sabbath ever did in a decade. In my classic rock interview from the In the Studio archive, the late Ozzy Osbourne reveals in detail sometimes harrowing and often hysterically funny, the stories behind “Crazy Train”, “Mr. Crowley”, “I Don’t Know”, “Suicide Solution”, and “Steal Away”. Don’t miss the dearly departed Ozzy Osbourne telling the story of Blizzard of Ozz here the week of September 15. -Redbeard