Ozzy Osbourne has died
bbc.co.uk598 points by fantunes 2 days ago
598 points by fantunes 2 days ago
One of my favorite Ozzy moments had nothing to do with his music, but was equally awesome. He was on the Howard Stern radio show shortly after 9/11:
Howard: Ozzy, what are your thoughts around 9/11?
Ozzy: It was terrible; one of those things you'll always remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news.
Howard: Where were you when you first heard about 9/11?
Ozzy: I can't bloody remember.
I'm sure it was staged, but it really hit the spot for me after all the tragedy of 9/11. RIP Ozzy.
Funny growing up in the 70s and 80s watching the Moral Majority lose their collective shit over Black Sabbath. Satanic panic was real: I had to hide my records from my dad and only play them when he wasn’t home. I still prefer Dio but ozzy had more of an impact on culture.
War Pigs is the most metal anti war song ever which is why the religious right hated it so much. Nothing to do with satanism, more about speaking truth to power. Still as relevant in 1970 as it is today.
In "you couldn't make this up" news, the BBC has a statement on his death from the UK Justice Secretary. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn0qq5nyxn0t?post=asset%3A5c...
I like how people were just responding to aesthetics despite After Forever being a song about how Jesus was way cool
A weird tech-related aspect to this for me. A few weeks ago I saw a viral video of his daughter saying that the final show really was his “funeral” and that he knew it would be his last show. I’m not a fan of his really so the video kinda passed me by, and I didn’t even realize it was AI generated. Upon his death now I’m struck by how accurate the video was. And, how it was emotionally very….accurate? I had internalized it as “truth” because I didn’t care enough to verify. But, in a weird way, it was “truth” even though the specific facts of it may not have been accurate. I don’t know if I have a particular point here, just that the experience of AI infiltrating in this sideways method is …concerning.
This is tangential to your tangent, but in The Decline of Western Civilization Pt. II there's an interview during which he cheerfully and obliviously fails to competently make himself breakfast. I think that might've marked the start of his charming, bumbling, cuddly reality-TV star era. And that scene was at least partly faked in the edit by director Penelope Spheeris.
The AI "voice-over clone" was more like default TTS David_British_1, the emotional video montage and text was what worked on people.
Ironically, the daughter's vlog [2] protesting the first fake "I'm dying" confession [1] helped the story gain traction, there was a second fake video of a random female voice claiming to be her [3] verifying the original story [1] which is probably what you saw.
The point is endless random autoplay is dupe central.
[1] https://www.tiktok.com/@news.time26/video/752576413769616924... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Zrv3bxKxw&t=10s [3] https://www.tiktok.com/@fdsa32558/video/7525676062676749581
I’m a child of the early 80s and I consider myself fortunate to see the “original” Black Sabbath lineup at Ozzfest in Milton Keynes (2001). I was convinced I was witnessing his last gig not just because of his age but due to him tipping buckets of ice water over himself and the various electrical equipment on stage. What a gig though. What a showman. I’m surprised he lasted this long to be honest.
RIP prince of darkness, you mad, mad bastard.
An absolute legend.
I missed my chance to listen to Black Sabbath in 2015 or 2016 during the Rock am Ring because the last day was cancelled.
I'm happy for what Ozzy did in his sixties and seventies, and what a way to go.
And let's not forget, the most likely reason he's been able to get this far with his lifestyle post-80s and 90s is Sharon
Indeed... The clip for Under the Graveyard sums it up well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuzyA5gDa4E
What a loss. Hope he's rocking with Randy somewhere out there.
Don't miss the recent tribute of Mr. Crowley with Jack Black on vocals. It was truly awesome.
As a cameo, he defeated a giant bat in Little Nicky. (2000) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1WBLiitrpSg
Goodbye, Ozzy :(
Two of my favorite Sabbath songs:
Zeitgeist, 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ofrYzMU6cw Planet Caravan, 1970 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm2N2nHqITY
Into the Void, for me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx6IwshTL6M
They invented so many things here, and Ozzy is the blueprint of a heavy metal singer hundreds of people copied decades to come after this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyNuUQs8w4Y
Paranoid. I love the Sabbath version, but Randy crushes it with Ozzy in 1981.
Only 3 years with Ozzy, and Randy is still top 10 in the minds of many a metal guitarist today. What an insane impact.
war pigs
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K3b6SGoN6dA
The greatest heavy metal performance to me. Sounding so heavy 55 years ago with primitive PA and a crappy recording, I’m amazed every time I watch it.
This is wild, thank you for sharing. An I agree with you, something this heavy in the year 19 seven zero was probably out of another universe.
N.I.B. for me. Greatest love song of all time. https://youtu.be/NsXEb-NOs88
Changes. Saddest song of all time. Can't listen to it without crying. https://youtu.be/dOz_dLmpT9A
RIP to a legend who had a profound impact on me as a young musician.
To quote my favorite song of his:
I've seen your face a hundred times Everyday we've been apart And I don't care about the sunshine, yeah 'Cause mama, mama, I'm coming home
Kinda funny that after everything he did Parkinsons was what got him.
What’s amazing is that 75.8 is the life expectancy of men in the US and he managed to cross it with the lifestyle he had.
Life expectancy of men *at birth*. Once you've made it to ten years old, those statistics don't apply any more.
In other words, the average lifespan of a 10-year old boy is not 65.8 additional years.
Even then, you’d be surprised that his lifestyle didn’t impact his lifespan more negatively.
But you’ll have chain smokers who live into their nineties.
His alcohol consumption levels usually result in death in one's 50s, maybe 60s, maybe 40s.
So don't hold the suspense - how much is it then and how does it stack with rest of developed world?
It is astonishing, isn't it? I'm reading Sirens of Titan right now and luck is such a big theme in it. You can always increase your odds by healthy living, but nothing is guaranteed. It really comes down to dumb luck.
> It really comes down to dumb luck
Let's not forget Ozzy's immense wealth that allowed him the best medical care and health/fitness programs in his later years. He stopped living "hard" by the 2000s, at least by his 1980s standards.
Had he kept living hard he wouldn't have made it.
Keith Richards is alive. Hard to think of a more improbable thing.
Please implore your children and children’s children to leave a better world for Keith Richards.
Keith Richards actually died sometime in 1983, but the doctors forgot to tell him.
I always assumed it was the drugs keeping him going, but in reality I think he quit them a long time ago.
Drug use is a risk factor for Parkinson's. A lot of drugs affect dopamine production or reuptake, and that seems to be able to cause a reduction in dopamine production later in life.
Some of the symptoms (like tremors) of withdrawal after long term stimulant/cocaine/amphetamine use are similar to parkinsons too since both cause a shortage of dopamine in the brain. I kinda wonder if one could accidentally mask early symptoms of parkinsons.
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Given that Parkinson's is a disease in which the neurons in the brain stop producing dopamine, it's just as possible that his drug use was treating his condition, not worsening it.
From what I can tell, Parkinson's doesn't have a direct, established environmental cause. Just some candidates which may increase risk.
Note: I'm not an MD or have any background in medicine.
To be fair, from the casual glance over the causes of Parkinson's, it doesn't seem as if alcohol or drugs are probable causes of Parkinson's.
Now, if he got something with pesticides or whatever still on it, sure, but Parkinson's is relatively murky with regards as to what causes it.
I met him in a "Bark at the Moon" contest and shook his hand. Not sure he noticed, lol! Anyway, Bark at the Moon is one of his top songs! Here's howling in sorrow for you Ozzy, RIP.
Wow the last Black Sabbath show really was the last one.
Unreal timing, though, I'm sure he knew
I feel like everyone on the inside knew it was coming very soon which is why it seemed so peculiarly Ozzy-focused down to the cake that Geezer Butler brought out to him at the end of the show (and I imagine the contingency plan was to have vocalists from all the other bands fill in during the Black Sabbath set).
This makes me wonder if Ozzy will have one last appearance at Wacken, like Lemmy did.
Those who made it to the Birmingham show were very lucky
RIP :( This is how I'd like to remember him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0hfg1htnM4 (video of Ozzy during an interview being clueless about Justin Bieber)
Did his last show and immediately keeled over. Legend.
Saw him live back in 1986 at the Long Beach Arena with Metallica opening. And I think I saw Sabbath at on OzzFest with Slayer. He was a great frontman and certainly lived a full life. We should all be so fortunate.
The Prince of Darkness will be missed. What a legend.
To me, his solo stuff from the 80s and mid 90s sounds so much more musical and awesome than his work with Black Sabbath. The Ultimate Sin (1986) and No Rest for the Wicked (1988) are just incredible. I must have listened to at least one of his songs every day between 1985-1991.
Goodbye, Ozzy. Your music was a big part of my high school and college life.
I know it's not the most tasteful thing to speak about right now but Sharon and Ozzy have been vocal about their full support for euthanasia, Sharon watched her dad suffer with Alzheimer and it defined her views in the matter. So given this news plus their las gig being just weeks ago I assume it's likely what happened, or at least something that is arguably the same (e g. stopping life sustaining devices, not necessarily taking anything)
Last stop for the crazy train, see you on the other side!
No, she has said he didn't euthanize himself. Someone posted a link.
Maybe it was the sheer will to do one last show.
It happens. My dad had a brain tumor. He was hell-bent on making his retirement age (65). He died two days after his 65th birthday.
Yeah. Someone said that someone else posted a link.
Refuting it and saying there’s proof without actually providing it is…a challenge.
A life well lived, and his work touched millions. Rest in peace.
Rolling Stone has a great obituary. There are some crazy stories in tech, but rock and metal still have the crown.
>“You couldn’t write my story; you couldn’t invent me.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ozzy-osbourne-...
one of the few (auto?)biographies i've ever read, and it was a really entertaining read. seemed like a complicated but good guy.
Iconic singer. He’s finally flying high again.
One of the great ones are gone. RIP Ozzy.
Damn. I'm visiting my sister in Birmingham next week. It's a big city with a lot of history (industrial revolution, modern geology), and a lot of pride in ordinary people doing their best. RIP Ozzy.
Soittakaa Paranoid!
RIP
I may have had my misgivings about the man (especially his attitude towards his successor), but I shan't deny the influence he had on the music I love. Rest in peace, mr. Osbourne.
Nice he was able to have his farewell show a couple of weeks ago.
God bless you Ozzy. Thank you for everything.
Incredible artist. Never got to see him live but listened to him so much growing up. Nostalgic feeling.
In his last decade he must have been a dreamer who dreamt of better days. Sad to see him go.
It's amazing that Ozzy Osbourne outlived Malcolm-Jamal Warner!
Never would have predicted that.
Cranking paranoid
RIP Ozzy. You were "THE" Founder.
Mama, I’m Coming Home
While Ozzy had nothing to do with the tech world directly, many of us leveraged his music to create our code and keep our sanity.
I'd love to see a black bar on HN to celebrate the Prince of Darkness!
Black Sabbath and 1st two Ozzy solo albums aged well imo. Timeless.
Now I REALLY wish I would have figured out a way to make it to the UK for Black Sabbath's final concert a couple of weeks ago.
Sang at his farewell concert, raised $190 million for childrens charity. Traveled to Switzerland and offed himself before parkinsons ravaged him.
An aristocratic death
FWIW, no source on the cause yet. Only thing we know is from their official statement here:
> It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis
Do you have a source that he "offed himself" in Switzerland? Did he do assisted suicide in Switzerland?
Sharon once claimed that they had agreed that if they ever got too ill, they'd do assisted suicide. Kelley claims she said this for attention and it's not the case.
Here is an article discussing it from 11 days ago.
https://people.com/kelly-osbourne-debunks-rumors-about-ozzy-...
Needless to say the title of the article seemingly has been reverse debunked.
When his final concert was covered on the news, they even mentioned his suicide agreement with his wife. It was very foreshadowing, like saying "yeah, this is really it."
> Ozzy Osbourne's music publicist confirmed to the BBC's Mark Savage that the star died in his home country - the UK - having lived in the US since the early 2000s.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn0qq5nyxn0t?post=asset%3Ad1...
Is there any proof he went to Switzerland? I heard rumours of him and Sharon having a 'suicide pact' to go to Dignitas but figured it was just rumours.
I'm not seeing anywhere that he went to Switzerland to have assisted suicide, where was this reported?
It’s reported as being caused by “complications due to his condition.” Suicide seems unfounded.
Doesn't Britain now have assisted dying? Why would he go to Switzerland for that?
Could have been physician assisted. Withdraw all meds and then give small increasing doses of morphine. But it really doesn't matter beyond his family and business partners.
They passed a law introducing it in a few years' time. There's a statutory system of death panels that needs to be implemented.
I'm opposed to medically assisted dying but based on your use of "death panels" I'm assuming you come at it from a different perspective. How is a "death panel" different from businesses deciding who gets food or health treatment?
In Switzerland, (public) health services are not businesses. And I don't think anyone in our system makes money from encouraging people's deaths. We also have assisted suicide services. They're a public association that brings penthobarbital to your place and assists you during your suicide.
I'm also opposed to assisted suicide. At the moment "death panels" are largely imaginary. If this law passes it will introduce actual death panels which dispense actual death as a "treatment". I don't really understand your question, probably because I'm not coming from where you think I'm coming from.
In the US our "death panels" aren't imaginary. They're administered by insurance companies.
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Many (probably not most, but close to it) death announcements on Hacker News are not tech related: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
In recent posts I see Brian Wilson (musician), Sly Stone (musician), Frederick Forsyth (author) and Michael Madsen (actor) all with over 50 points.
Just because the moderators don't follow their own rules, doesn't make it right to spam obituaries about random celebrities
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I’m coming in from a position of ignorance here, so I was hoping the community would help me understand: the only thing I know about Ozzy is that he’s bitten the heads off of various animals, including doves and bats. That happened before I was even born. But, looking over the comments, no one seems to be talking about it.
My question is, is it just not a big deal? If someone did that today, they’d be crucified in the courts of public opinion.
One could argue that it’s disrespectful to bring this up on his death thread, but, two points: one, I hope that people will bring up my mistakes when I pass, so that others can learn from it; and two, this is the only opportunity to talk about it, since Ozzy has rarely been a topic on HN.
Ozzy fans, can you help me understand why few people seem to care? It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that someone can decapitate some animals with their own teeth and then still build a loyal following. Was he just that good at music?
I’m posting this from a place of curiosity, not malice, for what it’s worth.
EDIT: Even if the bat was a mistake, what about the doves? https://kiisfm.iheart.com/content/2022-01-24-theres-another-...
He bit the head of what he thought was a rubber bat that someone threw on stage.
Turns out it was not rubber.
As for the rest. He was an icon. It's hard to see after the fact why something is revolutionary. Retrospectively it all seems obvious.
Like Newton and gravity, or calculus.
It doesn't look mind-blowing because everything that comes after it is influenced by it, and being first to start a new sound is only obvious if you look at the timeline.
It’s understandable that he thought the bat was fake. But he bit the head off two doves too: https://kiisfm.iheart.com/content/2022-01-24-theres-another-...
The rest is more interesting though. Which new sound did he create? Again, asking in earnest.
Black Sabbath, of which Ozzy was the frontman, is considered to be either one of around three, or the one founder of heavy metal. It may not be entirely right to say so, because there was a development going on around that time, but the entire giant metal genre goes back to these few guys, with Ozzy being one of them, in this timeline.
This heavier and more aggressive music was paired with a more krass and evil image to distinguish it more. That's where a lot of the dark, evil and satanic themes come from. Both of these are why he is the lord / prince of darkness in our circles.
It was just part of the metal zeitgeist at the time constant escalation of pretend evil/darkness.
He’s kinda been grandfathered in.
But it caused plenty of controversy back then too.
Then he rehabilitated his rep with the Osborne show where he was this messed up shuffling pity type figure.
So in short the culture changed but Ozzie changed with it and by then he was too fucked up to be cancelled.
Not claiming it’s rational but culture rarely is.
Additionally Ozzie claims he thought it was a fake/prop but was so fucked up at the time he just went with it.
Also it happened once it wasn’t like he was out doing it every week!
As someone who listened to the music, it’s surprising to see this as the top comment.
Yes their lyrics are dark. That was the point.
Eating animals isn’t what comes to mind for me. I also rationalize it that 100s of millions of animals are slaughtered every day, especially birds. Which one of those facts is darker?
It’s surprising to see what people are remembered for.
Doing it for fun and popularity is completely different. And especially in such a cruel and torturous way the Osborne did. He did it on several occasions and knowingly at that.
He's in everyone's good graces because he's now known as a kookie old man from the MTV show _The Osbournes_ that aired in the mid-2000's. Same reason why Michael Jackson, arguably the most famous person of the 90s, isn't as popular after his death given his reclusiveness and scandals. We tend to remember stars for the last impact that they had — not what they started off with.
Legend has it that he was handed a live bat at a concert and thought it was a prop -- was almost more surprised than the bat.
Also - animal rights were still gaining traction re: the arts. It was only in 1972 that the first "No animals were harmed in this film" was aired.
> Ozzy fans, can you help me understand why few people seem to care?
Because this is at best an anecdote for someone who had such a troubled life with alcohol and drugs?
Because his music is so great and influenced so many other great artists that we know that he didn't do those things as a gimmick for attention?
Because I know we shouldn't be looking at rock stars as paragons of moral virtue?
Ozzy has bitten the head of a bat because it was thrown on to the stage by an fan and he was expecting it to be a fake, rubber, bat. As far as I know he has not intentionally hurt an animal.
Unfortunately he has, twice. https://kiisfm.iheart.com/content/2022-01-24-theres-another-...
I don't think this fully explains, but the way society as a whole thinks about animals has changed an awful lot over the last 50 years.
I also think that the boundaries of "polite society" and the law were different in scope.
(Not justifying, but considering figures like Strom Thurmond had no problem remaining in office despite issues arguably more human adjacent it does not surprise me.)
Strom Thurmond was repeatedly reelected because of what he did, not despite it. His constituents really liked what he did.
also worth mentioning there are at minimum tens of millions of people that eat animals that are still alive - some dishes in some cultures are served not-entirely-dead. and many more cultures (american) that literally boil animals alive all the time (lobsters).
animal cruelty doesn't spark the backlash you might think it does, and especially not 40 years ago when ozzy did that
Satanic panic kind blew it up into something it wasn't.
Ozzy leaned into it a little and I think it helped his profile.
Other rumours were that he had ribs removed so he could better suck his own cock. The head biting and the rib story was later transferred on to Marilyn Manson.
Isn't it odd to think that a man covered in pentagrams caused such an outrage? How the world has changed.
When people die, folks usually share relevant stories about them, not inane nonsense.
Do you have any other half-remembered urban legends to share with the class? I heard that Marilyn Manson had some ribs removed so he could suck himself off.
I'm fond of pigeons, I don't want a rock star to bite their heads off for preference. However I don't think it matters very much. I probably wouldn't watch it more than once if that had been Ozzy's act, which it wasn't. But "crucified in the courts of public opinion" is just some bullshit. Public opinion shouldn't have a court, and courts shouldn't crucify people. So the most you'll get out of me is mild disapproval with a note about mitigating circumstances, regarding whatever addled headspace Ozzy was in in 1981. I think his career (and sanity) was somewhat shaky at that point, although the much admired Blizzard of Oz was released the same year, which makes up for the doves thing, which as I say I'm inclined to regard as somewhat trivial given that he didn't make a habit of it, wasn't in his right mind, and we eat them anyway.
~43 years ago he bit the head off a bat accidently: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ozzy-osbourne-...
I'm not sure how that turned into "he’s bitten the heads off of various animals"
"That night in Des Moines, someone threw a live bat. “I thought it was a rubber bat,” Osbourne said. “I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown that I am.”"
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No it didn’t help. We can ask the electronic village idiot ourselves.
All this does is pollute the thread.