When Ozzy Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath, he believed his career was over. Before being confronted by Sharon Arden. The singer, was abusing drugs and alcohol and living in appalling conditions, and had decided to give up and let the celebration end him.
Arden, the manager’s daughter for Black Sabbath, volunteered to manage Osbourne because she believed he still had music and life in him (and they later married). He eventually put a band together and started writing Blizzard of Ozz, his first album without Sabbath, which would ultimately change the course of his entire existence.
Here are some interesting facts you didn’t know about it.
It was a comeback for Ozzy
Ozzy truly believed his career was over after Black Sabbath and Ozzy split up. In reality, he had leased a motel room in Los Angeles, stocked up on drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes, and was prepared to leave the area in a wooden coffin because he had little to live for. Sharon Levy, the manager’s daughter for Black Sabbath, enters the scene. When she learned where Osbourne was living and how he was feeling, she made the decision to intervene in order to prevent him from essentially drinking himself to death. After the motel incident, it was clear that Ozzy’s next professional step and the first record released after Sabbath were both very important.
Osbourne thought it was a contest
The vocalist later declared that he thought the record would directly compete with Black Sabbath, who had Ronnie James Dio in his stead. Osbourne said in his book, I Am Ozzy.
“I’d be talking out my arse if I said I didn’t feel like I was in competition with Black Sabbath when we made Blizzard of Ozz. I wished them well, I suppose, but part of me was shitting myself that they were going to be more successful without me.”
It Wasn’t Meant to Be a Solo Record
In the beginning, the idea was to start a band and put out a record called “Blizzard of Ozz” with Ozzy Osbourne’s name added for credit. The first people to start working on the album, Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake, were confident that this would be the case. However, when it came time for the project to be released, Ozzy’s name ended up serving as both the project’s selling point and moniker, effectively turning it into a solo record. In retrospect, it was undoubtedly the right commercial choice.
It outsold his best album with Sabbath
Over six million copies of Blizzard of Ozz have been sold globally, outselling Paranoid. Over five million copies of Paranoid were sold globally.
Gary Moore was meant to play guitar on it at first
Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy was Osbourne’s first option for a guitarist for his band to record the album. Osbourne claimed that Moore was “always hot and cold,” likely due to the singer’s unreliable image that led to his initial dismissal from Sabbath.
Suicide Solution Controversy
Performer Ozzy Osbourne has always been controversial. The guy has done it all, including biting off a bat’s head and spouting buckets of pig’s blood into the crowd. However, not all of his disputes served to enhance his reputation. Parents of a child who reportedly committed suicide after listening to Osbourne’s song “Suicide Solution” sued the singer in 1985, claiming that the song was the catalyst for their child’s demise.
Everyone who testified, including Ozzy Osbourne, agreed that the song did not advocate suicide; rather, it merely described the self-destructive desire to drink oneself to death. Despite Osbourne’s assertion that the song was about AC/Bon DC’s Scott, the song’s actual lyrics were written by Bob Daisley, who subsequently claimed that Ozzy himself was the subject because he was no stranger to such dark thoughts.
Don Airey Played a Big Role in the Making of the Hit Single
When it comes to the first two Ozzy albums, the core band of Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake, and Randy Rhoads receives a lot of praise, but one individual played a key role in establishing the ominous mood on “Blizzard of Ozz’s” second single.
The renowned and perfectly ominous intro to “Mr. Crowley” was written by Don Airey who it seems worked with everyone from Gary Moore to Judas Priest, to eventually settling in with Deep Purple. Ozzy got in touch with Airey when he required some keyboards for his new album because they had previously collaborated on Sabbath’s “Never Say Die!”. For the ensuing years, they continued to collaborate, with Airey providing keyboard parts for each record.
A farewell letter
According to reports, Osbourne proposed “Goodbye to Romance” serve as Black Sabbath’s farewell song.
