23-07-2025
Philadelphia radio DJs remember Ozzy Osbourne: "He started it all"
Seventeen days after appearing on stage with his Black Sabbath band mates for the final time, Ozzy Osbourne died Tuesday at the age of 76.
Osbourne is known both as a pioneer of heavy metal and as a goofy and lovable father on a hit reality TV show of the early 2000s.
He was born John Michael Osbourne on Dec. 3, 1948.
93.3 WMMR DJ Jacky BamBam said, "He started it all … Ozzy was your Prince of Darkness."
"Watching Ozzy on stage, listening to his music, it gives you life," DJ Sara Parker said. "It makes you feel that wild energy that makes you just want to push forward."
Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates have been referred to as the Beatles of heavy metal, pioneers whose ingenuity and sound influenced countless acts who came after them.
"He was a little cuckoo for cuckoo puffs, but that's why we loved him," BamBam added.
That impact extended far beyond the industry, however.
"As a kid growing up, you know, not knowing where you fit in this world, and to have something that you found not only the music that you like but the community that surrounds it and people that are like-minded with that, you know, it really set the course of my life," WMMR DJ Ryan Shuttleworth said.
Black Sabbath's first U.S. concert was at Glassboro State College — now Rowan University — on Oct. 30, 1970.
Years later, a South Jersey kid who would graduate from Rowan came across and was touched by the band and its energetic lead singer.
Mike DiFranco, a lifelong fan, mentioned one of his songs, "I Don't Want to Change the World," which he interprets to mean, just be you.
He added that if not for a friendship he formed with a fellow Osbourne fan in high school — his now brother-in-law — he may not be married to his wife today.
Osbourne lived life to the fullest, and that's exactly how he'll be remembered.
