Metal Sludge Gossip Board

Let me say from the outset, I am a huge Ozzy fan, especially the Sabbath and Randy years (but I also will sample some from Bark at the Moon and No More Tears ... the rest ... ehh..)
I want to be proven wrong here.

I know we have been through this before. But with all the ball-washing following his death, it got me back to thinking about our age-old question: who is the luckiest man in rock?

What do I mean by luckiest? Well, who has achieved the greatest success in a band and/or solo situation in relation to their talent/ abilities/ input into the band/brand? Who has benefitted the most from bandmates and managers?
Put a different way, who has the greatest inverse ratio between success output and input?

It's with mixed feelings, I'm gonna have to submit Ozzy as my current candidate, subject to convincing counter-candidates (and, as you will see, Vince Neil is a most enticing prospect....)

Let's be honest about our lovable Madman's musical (and other) limitations:

• Ozzy can't play any musical instrument.
  Ozzy doesn't write any music -- and hasn't written a single song in his life (well, aside from the entirety of the Bark at the Moon Album....)
  Ozzy doesn't write the vast majority of his lyrics (nearly his entire catalogue of words are from Geezer, Daisley, Lemmy and others)

• Bizarre stage presence that somehow even I thought was cool in 1982-83, but was really nothing more than a nervous-looking man pacing the stage, removing and replacing the mic a thousand times, and screaming one of a small subset of about 4 phrases randomly: Option 1: "let me see how your hands!", Option 2: " lemme hear you!" or Option 2b (more in later years) " I can't fucking hear you!", Option 3: "let's go crazy!" or Option 4: "I love you! (all)!"

Pause there for a second. How many lead singers of major rock bands don't write any songs OR any lyrics? There's not many .... I guess Vince Neil (a close second place candidate, but for his success not being as high as Ozzy's), maybe Liam Gallagher (although he wrote many for later albums - but geez on all those classic Oasis songs the demos have Noel singing the lyrics and the entire melodies.... but I digress... Liam was too cool for this category))?

Ozzy's talents:

Ozzy does hum melodies (and many good ones), but many times in Sabbath he sang the guitar (or bass) lines. But we gotta give him melody credit.
Ozzy has a unique voice. It's distinguishable and works well with the music. It's not a great voice. It's a good voice.
Fun personality -- worked the madman image and then the lovable Osbournes show guy (but see: Sharon's influence, below)

Impact of Management and bandmate inputs

• Ozzy had Sharon. Enough said. His entire Madman image, leveraging the press for the bat and alamo incident, etc. is Sharon 101 throughout the 1980s. And I think we can all agree he doesn't navigate the grunge years and into the 2000's without Ozzfest and the Osbournes, and those are Sharon management moves. Yes she is a cunt. An effective cunt.
  
  Ozzy also had Tony Iommi, Geezer, Randy Rhoads, Daisley and many others in the music and lyrics department. No one can say he hasn't had top-notch musicians and writers, at least in his glory years

Conclusion

In sum, we love him (as we should). We miss him (as we should).

But when I run the numbers into the equations, I think the creative inputs and management of those around him are disproportionately high for our lovable Ozz.

Out of respect, I'd accept Vince Neil as a surrogate. But I'm hard pressed for another that meets the criteria of a HUGE success ratio to talent input.

I concur.

A couple of bass players come to mind: Rex, Ian Hill...they didn't write shit, and sleep in 5-star hôtels. And very little pressure, all eyes and ears are on the singer and guitarists!

Yes sir you are correct on all accounts.

pieceofme wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 6:40 amI concur.

God Bless You!!

Psychobolia.com wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 6:59 am A couple of bass players come to mind: Rex, Ian Hill...they didn't write shit, and sleep in 5-star hôtels. And very little pressure, all eyes and ears are on the singer and guitarists!

Well, let's be careful on our criteria here. Without order, we have chaos.
My criteria is the actual person who is ascribed the greatest acclaim / success when in fact the great bulk of can be largely attributed to the contributions of others.
No one really credits Ian Hill with Priest's success. (The guys above fit into "luckiest hanger ons" in rock. And Ian Hill in particular better have serviced Rob on a regular basis for his success. But I'm aiming for sorta the "star" who got huge but had, comparatively speaking, the least about of contribution to the success....)

JamesHetfieldsAcneScars wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 7:05 am Yes sir you are correct on all accounts.

I love you!! (I love you all!)

veritas wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 6:36 am

• Bizarre stage presence that somehow even I thought was cool in 1982-83, but was really nothing more than a nervous-looking man pacing the stage, removing and replacing the mic a thousand times, and screaming one of a small subset of about 4 phrases randomly: Option 1: "let me see how your hands!", Option 2: " lemme hear you!" or Option 2b (more in later years) " I can't fucking hear you!", Option 3: "let's go crazy!" or Option 4: "I love you! (all)!"

Out of respect, I'd accept Vince Neil as a surrogate. But I'm hard pressed for another that meets the criteria of a HUGE success ratio to talent input.

You left out Ozzy clapping like a seal.

While Vince didn't write anything, he did have a cool voice (in the studio), chicks loved him, and he had great stage presence. So, I think he brought a lot to Motley's table and they would not have been anywhere near as successful without him.

Velvis wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 7:39 am

veritas wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 6:36 am

• Bizarre stage presence that somehow even I thought was cool in 1982-83, but was really nothing more than a nervous-looking man pacing the stage, removing and replacing the mic a thousand times, and screaming one of a small subset of about 4 phrases randomly: Option 1: "let me see how your hands!", Option 2: " lemme hear you!" or Option 2b (more in later years) " I can't fucking hear you!", Option 3: "let's go crazy!" or Option 4: "I love you! (all)!"

Out of respect, I'd accept Vince Neil as a surrogate. But I'm hard pressed for another that meets the criteria of a HUGE success ratio to talent input.

You left out Ozzy clapping like a seal.

I was just trying to show some respect in this time of mourning.... but fair point. Let's add that into the mathematics of all this.

You guys are leaving out the biggest part - he got thrown out of his band for being a druggie and a drunk, and was so bad off that he was going to take his publishing money and waste away in a hotel room. Then, he got a 2nd chance and ended up a bigger star than he evetlr was and left his old band in the dust.

Bono Nettencourt wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 8:53 am You guys are leaving out the biggest part - he got thrown out of his band for being a druggie and a drunk, and was so bad off that he was going to take his publishing money and waste away in a hotel room. Then, he got a 2nd chance and ended up a bigger star than he evetlr was and left his old band in the dust.

There was no publishing money.
Sabbath got all that stolen by their management...

I think so. An alcoholic/ drug addict that fell into Sharon’s arms - she took the reigns - and he lucked into finding players that were very talented but very ignorant and she was able to take control. Wasn’t her dad a high powered music figure?

Ozzy got, or rather Sharon was able to, get him credit for it all and contributed very little as far as songwriting according to Bob Daisley’s book ‘For Facts Sake.’ Bob contends that Ozzy ‘was passed out drunk under a table’ for a large part of the recording of the first 2 albums.


Interesting tidbit - the first Ozzy album was actually supposed to be a band called Blizzard of Oz but the dumb record label put Ozzy’s name larger than the band name so people thought it was actually his solo album.

That is luck.

Ozzy and Sharon have always had good ears for talent. Rhoads, but also Bob Daisley. The decline was sharp after Daisley left the scene for good.

And Daisley always had this knack for writing lyrics like "Today was tomorrow yesterday," which is just stoned-dude nonsense, perfect for Ozzy.

Or my favorite: "Was it polemically sent?"

Well he did write a few songs with Sabbath and played harmonica.

Chip Z'Hoy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 12:03 pm
Or my favorite: "Was it polemically sent?"

One of my faves. I wonder if any interviewer ever asked Ozzy what he meant by that. Would be a good reply if he said "Hey, I followed it up my "I wanna know what YOU meant"!

HueyRamone wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 1:59 pm

Chip Z'Hoy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 09, 2025 12:03 pm
Or my favorite: "Was it polemically sent?"

One of my faves. I wonder if any interviewer ever asked Ozzy what he meant by that. Would be a good reply if he said "Hey, I followed it up my "I wanna know what YOU meant"!

I would have paid reasonable money to ask Ozzy (or Sharon) what that line meant . . . .