The History of the Prince of Darkness’s Guitarist’s

Ozzy Osbourne was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it was a long road that brought him there. Summarising his story is an almost impossible task, so this blog will be split into 3 parts about his solo career. For each part being based on his guitarist at the time.

His beginning didn’t start like many other solo artists. He was fired from the band “Black Sabbath” in 1979 due to tension with band mates. Not long after, his agent singed him to Jet Records with the intention of recording new songs. He formed the band “Blizzard of Ozz” released in 1980 with songs like “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley”. Blizzard of Ozz coincidentally was the name of his first album, but the name of the group ended up becoming just “Ozzy Osbourne”. His band consisted of big names in the rock scene, but the one that stuck out the most was Randy Rhodes from the band “Quiet Riot”. A second album was made with Rhodes called “Diary of a Madman” released in 1981 with songs like “Flying High Again” and “Diary of a Madman”. Sadly, Randy Rhodes passed away in a plane accident in 1982. This sent Ozzy into a deep depression, losing one of his band mates and his friends.

The next chapter of Ozzy Osbourne starts in 1983 with Jake E. Lee from the band “Ratt” taking Rhodes spot as lead guitarist. They recorded the album “Bark at the Moon” with with songs like “Bark at the Moon” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Devil”. The album quickly became certified gold and selling 3 million copies in the U.S. It was until 3 years later in 1986 Ozzy released his next album with Jake called “The Ultimate Sin” with songs like “The Ultimate Sin” and “Shot in the Dark”. This album became Osbourne’s highest-charting album. It obtained platinum status in May of 1986 and double platinum October of 1994. Though it was the highest charting album, it was Ozzy’s least favourite album saying how he did not like how it was produced and blaming the producer/bassist Phil Soussan. Jake E. Lee was fired in 1987. Jake didn’t really click with Osbourne, and believes that producer/bassist Phill Soussan encouraged Ozzy to fire him so Soussan can be the main songwriter.

This chapter of Ozzy’s solo career began in 1988 with new lead guitarist “Zakk Wylde”. They recorded 4 albums together, which were “No Rest for the Wicked” in 1988 with songs like “Miracle Man” and “Devil’s Daughter (Holy War)”. “No More Tears” in 1991 with songs like “No More Tears” and “Hellrasier” (written by Lemmy from Motorhead.) “Ozzmosis” in 1995 with songs like “Perry Mason” and ” I Just Want you” . “Black Rain” in 2007 with songs like “Not Going Away” and “I Don’t Wanna Stop”. Zakk Wylde established himself with his hypno Les Paul guitar and his own style of playing that separated him from the other guitarists Osbourne had. He returned many times to play with Ozzy during his tours throughout the 2000’s.

Ozzy proved to everyone that he didn’t need Black Sabbath to create genre defying music. Ozzy recalls how most of this time was a blur due to the alcohol and drugs, but he implemented him self in rock history. His last album released was “Patient Number 9” which featured many artists with no main guitarist. Osbourne still wants to create and perform his music but his age and medical issues seem to be a rising problem.

Photo by Amirhossein Hasani on Unsplash

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