Sabbath! Ozzy and Changes We Go Through Together

Sabbath! Ozzy and Changes We Go Through Together by Roxanne McDonald

One of my absolute favorite bands in my teens (the 70s) was Sabbath. When Ozzie was booted, I boycotted. In the last ten or so years, though, I have gone through changes missing that band.

If it weren’t for the MTV’s brilliant move to televise “The Osbournes,” I would be longing even more deeply, but once again am jonesing for that unforgettable, utterly unique sound.

When Ozzy sings, it is as if we are being called to from an ancient cave (yeah, where else would the fu-king prince of darkness reign from?), the sound not hollow but resounding (without the ecoplex or the wahwah) in this enduring, haunting, wailing way….

If one could wear out an LP, I would have made several new grooves in my Volume 4 Black Sabbath album, listening so repeatedly as I did the tracks like “Changes”.  About five years into life in California, after having left the album (among others) behind, I was again drawn to the old Sabbath when my boyfriend bought me that very 33 for Valentine’s Day, fascinated as he was with my fascination.

When we went to cassette tapes (or when I finally gave in and invested), I got another copy of Vol. 4., using it as power-walking accompaniment and inspiration.

Then we went to CDs.  It wasn’t until after I had collected, oh, ten CDs? (most home-burned goodies from students who wanted me to remember the day I referenced Who Let the Dogs Out by whoofing simulations or the time the class did dramatic Intertextual interpretations of Waiting for Godot and used Led Zepplin and other teacher-pleasing 70s rock as theme music)—that I got my first installed CD radio in the classic car a different bf was restoring for me.

I decided my first two CDs to christen the new deck would be Aerosmith’s and Sabbath’s…this time, greatest hits.  The bf was a flake and never finished the car, so I got to hear Sabbath again ONCE.

By the time “The Osbournes” came on MTV, or for me, in re-run on NICK?  No, it couldn’t have been…lol…, anyway, I was ready to be riveted in another way.  I complained to anyone who cared that Ozzy didn’t sing much on the show, that likely there were contractual hindrances, so we only got clips.

Now I get to listen, see, and write about the FPofD, and dream my dreams, changes or not.

So what, I investigate, is Ozzy going through these days?

I found verrrry little at first, a quick TMZ piece on Ozzy in Vegas for Vh1 Rock Honors, talking with Billy Bob Thornton and having daughter Kelly “translate”.  Then I found the news of Ozzy’s latest changes:

Is insulted by someone suggesting he get a vocal coach for warming up before concerts, and he laughs and tells the well-meaning to “F-ck off!”, of course.

Does the BFC thing—the Betty Ford Clinic thing, that is…reporting that despite all the addictive substances hard to kick, cigarettes are still the toughest.  (Yes, Oz, the doctors will tell you that they hit the brain faster than heroin and are both uppers and downers at the same time.  I can’t/don’t want to quit them either.)

Tells press he and Sabbath were inspired by The Beatles…to keep going, keep dreaming.  He is glad he did, and he and McCartney exchange letters even now, he says, reminding him of those early days of staying driven and hopeful.

Releases the first album in six years and better, one that listeners have said is awesome, formally tight, and lyrically comprehensible!  Black Rain is where I am going next, then.

So as Ozzy was seeing the birth of his son and at the same time (soon after) losing his father to cancer, we may have been graduating from high school and leaving father’s house.  As Ozzy is getting challenged or arrested for his bat and dove-beheading and Alamo desecrating, we may have been hoping for a way to make our marks on the world, albeit in less dramatic ways.  And as Ozzy faces the equalizing issues of spousal abuse, a declining career, a wife diagnosed with cancer, and a musical, solo comeback, we were likely facing similar issues—all the while following one of the greatest rockers of all time.

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