Midlife Metal Crisis- top 10 Heavy Metal albums of the 1980's #8 OzzyOsbourne - The Blizzard of Ozz

The Best Heavy Metal Albums of the 1980's #8 Ozzy Osbourne - The Blizzard of Ozz (1980)

In 1979 Ozzy was sacked from Black Sabbath, the band stated issues with substance abuse being the main reason for his departure but an ongoing feud with Guitarist Tony Iommi was generally linked to the sacking.
In hindsight both would go on to do their best records in years, the last couple of Sabbath albums were nothing spectacular and the last tour they did had them accused of being tired and uninspiring compared to their support act Van Halen.
Black Sabbath would recruit Ronnie James Dio and Produce Heaven and Hell to great acclaim. Ozzy hired experienced pros in Lee Kerslake (Uriah Heep) on drums, Bob Daisley (Rainbow) on Bass and Guitarist Randy Roads (Quiet Riot). The resulting album Blizzard of Ozz would go on to sell over 6 million copies and cement Ozzy's comeback as one of the biggest rock stars in the world. I Don't know, Crazy Train, Suicide solution and Mr Crowley would go on to become permanent fixtures in Ozzy's live set and millions of budding young guitarists would attempt the Crazy Train riff.





The line up would go on to produce another great album in Diary of a Madman before the rhythm section was sacked and replaced. The resulting lawsuits and counter suits about song writing credits and royalties by Kerslake and Daisley over the years would lead to the ultra petty replacement of their bass and drum parts on the 2002 reissues of the albums.

Daisley and Kerlake (left)  would be airburshed out of 2002 re-release

Star of Osbournes fist two albums and genuine guitar hero Randy Rhoads' career was tragically cut short when he died at the young age of 25 years old in a plane crash whilst on tour in early 1982. Afraid of flying he agreed to go up in the plane with the tour bus driver and hair stylist to take a few photos. The pilot started to buzz the tour bus which the rest of the band were on and misjudged the manoeuvre, clipping the wing on the bus and crashing the plane killing everyone on board.




 Ozzy would go on to produce a series of lacklustre follow ups throughout the eighties that never really hit the same heights as his debut. I finally got to see him live in the nineties supporting the truly woeful album Ozzmosis which featured a track called 'Old LA tonight' an album he suspiciously played no tracks off. He would finally become less famous as a rock star than he was for being the shambling idiot shouting SHARON and picking up dog shit in the reality TV show The Osbournes.

Ozzy was always a target for the ridiculous religious groups which seemed to dominate the US politics of the 1980's with his pantomime horror movie imagery, drunken antics and songs called 'suicide solution'. Osbourne has been unsuccessfully sued twice for people supposedly committing suicide due to the song. It never had that effect on me, although I might be persuaded if someone tried to put Ozzmosis on again.