Ozzy Osbourne, the Lovable Prince of Darkness
From his days as the helium-voiced conjurer of demonic wars and time-traveling iron men to his signature pop-culture role as a dotty reality TV star, Osbourne, who died on Tuesday at 76, was perhaps rock's most beloved mascot of excess.
Damaged by years of drug abuse, and more recently by a variant of Parkinson's disease, Osbourne was long diminished from his peak performances of the 1970s as the lead singer of Black Sabbath, which more than any other band defined the sound (loud and molten), look (gothic black) and attitude (sneering) of heavy metal.
But his persistence, even in a weakened state, only made Osbourne more beloved. That was poignantly clear this month, when Black Sabbath made its final appearance at a charity concert in Birmingham, England, where the group was founded, called Back to the Beginning — with Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Pantera, Anthrax and even the other members of Black Sabbath apparently happy to play second fiddle to Osbourne.
Dressed in glittery black and seated on a black throne, Osbourne swayed his arms above his head as he led the crowd in 'War Pigs,' the vaguely satanic antiwar epic that opens the band's influential second album, 'Paranoid' (1970).
'Thank you from the bottom of my heart,' he told the crowd.
For longtime fans, the image of Ozzy — everybody called him Ozzy — from the Birmingham concert echoed his most familiar posture from Ozzfest, the touring music festival that Osbourne led almost annually from 1996 to 2018. There, worshiped by a multigenerational faithful, Osbourne only had to raise his arms and mouth a benevolent grin to make the audience go wild.
Tommy Lee, the drummer of Mötley Crüe, recalled in a recent interview with The New York Times Osbourne's 'signature move' to rally a crowd.
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