Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard Of Ozz

RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK

Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard Of Ozz

This week’s Recommendation Of The Week is an album that has probably influenced me more than maybe anything else in my life. Released this week, in the UK, in 1980, Blizzard Of Ozz was my introduction to the man who’s music saved my life, gave me life, and has shaped my existence since I was a young child.

My undying worship and love for Ozzy began long ago, when I was around 4 or 5. It was 1984, and my babysitter lived a few houses down from me, and for a moment, I was being watched by her brother, who was probably about 11 or 12. I remember, after she sort of just dropped me off in his bedroom with him for a few minutes, he just gave me a glance and went back to doing his thing. I was scared, but very curious as to what this “old” person was all about. I felt like I was seeing a life I had never seen before. All I specifically remember is that he had 2 posters on his wall that mesmerized me. First, was the cover of Quiet Riot’s Bang Your Head (Metal Health) album, which I have always thought was such a cool, iconic album cover. The second, well that was one that I would never, ever forget, and would influence and shape my life forever. That poster, which scared and at the same time seduced me, I really just couldn’t look away from it, was of a frightening man, staring intensely. Actually, the man, who was on a floor, draped in a red and white robe with a crucifix in hand, seemed far more like a Demonic Entity!

With the fog drifting behind him, like he had risen from hell, he just overtook me. Oh man, that poster was so cool!

I was so frozen in awe by that poster. The colors, the eyes of this figure, the lighting within the poster, the room in which the possessed soul was lurching from, all of it was like nothing I had ever seen before. My babysitter returned and we left, but the "damage" was done. That moment I stared into the eyes on the poster, well, that moment changed my life forever!

 A few years later, when I was probably around 8 years old, I discovered what that poster was, while watching MTV. I had been sneaking MTV since I was about 5, and now I was watching it regularly. I loved MTV and loved all of the music videos and the music it introduced me to! I couldn’t get enough of it!

While watching MTV, I saw a commercial or small special which featured Ozzy Osbourne. It showed some of his albums and I believe that The Ultimate Sin was just being released and maybe it was a promo. Whatever it was, I remember hearing “Crazy Train”, which I had come to love and I saw a picture of the poster I saw a few years earlier. It was only a glimpse, but it captivated me immediately and I knew I needed to find out what it was!

Around the same time, I saw it again while at Strawberries, the long-gone Boston area music store, with my mother.  As I was walking around the store looking at the tapes, I came across something. There it was, exactly what I was hoping to find. In my hand was the cassette tape of the Blizzard Of Ozz, and Ozzy in all his demonic glory staring back at me. I needed that tape and that long mystery was now solved. I had it in my hands!

I got that tape that day, and basically, that was it! It had “Crazy Train”, which I listened to an insane amount of times, over and over again before even exploring the rest of the album. I would just stare at the cover and smile. It was so cool! And yeah, it still is one of the coolest album covers ever!

That’s when I first heard “Mr. Crowley”, and the unbelievable guitar of Randy Rhoads. Those solos in “Mr. Crowley” still give me shivers of awe and excitement when I hear them today. I still can feel that feeling, that exact moment of being a kid and hearing that guitar for the first time, and hearing Ozzy’s voice scream for the first time

Life. Changed. Forever.

As a kid growing up in the 80s, you always heard about stories and myths relating to the “Satanic Panic”.  Being a kid, I never knew what to think, but I definitely knew that we all heard all the Ozzy rumors:  Ozzy was “Bad”, “Satan himself”, “He bit the head off a bat and drank its blood”, “He’ll eat us children!”

We were all taught to be and supposed to be afraid of Ozzy. Well, thanks and much gratitude to all of you that were trying to scare us. That’s what made us want Ozzy more!

Blizzard Of Ozz will always exist in my soul. It, unknowingly, changed my life forever! In a few years, it would lead me to discover Black Sabbath. It was instrumental in my wanting and longing to learn to play guitar. As an album cover, it drew me in completely into collecting Vinyl and all of its glory. It gave me the keys and opened the door to everything for me. From the day I looked into Ozzy’s demonic eyes on the cover of Blizzard Of Ozz, I was possessed for eternity.

I am forever grateful.

I owe all of that to Ozzy Osbourne! He saved my life long before I ever knew that it needed saving, and his music has been doing it every day since!

Some people “find Jesus”

I FOUND OZZY 

Essential Track: “Mr. Crowley”