The king of doom rock has passed away
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/ozzy-osbourne-pioneering-heavy-metal-singer-black-sabbath-frontman-die-rcna42423
Of course, he was much more than that, but he and Black Sabbath's influence stretched far and long. Growing up in the 70's, they heavily shaped my taste in music, or lack thereof, lol. Was lucky enough to see him on his Blizzard of Oz tour with Randy Rhoads -- remember it like it was yesterday. Thanks for the tunes, dude, and lots of laughs along the way.

Also, I highly recommend "I am Ozzy", one of the funniest, most entertaining rock auto-bios ever.

There was nothing as fun as dropping acid with my boys, listening to Black Sabbath, and being convinced that I was gonna die that night. We did it again and again. RIP OZZY!

I saw Ozzy and Sabbath several times. I was lucky enough to see him once w Randy Rhoads a few weeks before the crash. One of the back drops of my growing up life has gone. RIP Ozzy.

This is up there with Ronnie James Dio for me. Dio was the Sabbath I grew up on where Ozzy was the catalyst that forced me to look back in time at his early stuff and listen groups like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow. I clearly remember being 7 years old, clueless seeking out Ozzy's No Rest for The Wicked album on my Columbia House mailer while listening to "Heaven and Hell" by Sabbath. LOL

Rest in Peace, sire. Between Ozzy, Rhodes, Vinnie, Dimebag and Lemmy, heaven officially has the heaviest supergroup ever

Would be good if Ch4 in UK repeated The Osbournes series from a while back. It had to be the most brilliant of reality shows ever made. They were just crazy.

One of the first songs I learned on guitar was Paranoid.

Diary of a Madman had an outsized influence on my songwriting musically and lyrically (Of course Randy was a huge influence on my playing). A few of my lyrics were written with Ozzy's voice in mind.

When I toured as bassist with the doom band, we used Sabbath Bloody Sabbath as our soundcheck song.

No More Tears is a masterpiece.

Solid! Ours was actually "Voodoo" off the Mob Rules album for a while. Later we switched it up to "Children of the Grave". Our band was split right down the middle between Dio and Ozzy Sabbath fans with me being the only fan of both. I stayed out of the "David Lee Roth vs Sammy Hagar" debates though LOL

David and Gary were the two best singers on Van Halen albums, although David was the best *for* Van Halen; Gary was the best for an entirely different project that didn't fit in with what Roth did. Really, what Hager did didn't fit in - I always look at that as a case where the sum was less than the parts.

But yeah, I love both Ozzy and Dio Sabbath.

It's interesting to me how when one person dies, someone makes forum post to basically say "rest in piss" and everyone tries to one up each other about how horrible a shitbag that person was personally.

But another dies and it's all positive stuff about their career and public persona with none of the same shit slinging about their personal shortcomings. I wonder why that is?

I mean, Ozzy's issues were well known, and mostly surrounded around his various substance abuse issues and the effects when he was on them.

I saw him on The Ultimate Sin tour way back when, and, honestly? He was drunk and... not at his peak. I didn't expect him to make it into the 1990s, really.

He still put on a great show - just... it could have been greater?

If you are referring to Hogan VS Ozzy as far as a response to their deaths, there are a few things to keep in mind.
I don't know of Ozzy ever going on a racist rant.
I don't know of Ozzy saying that someone deserved to get paralyzed because they weren't living right when it was his kids fault.
I don't know of Ozzy running around taking credit for every good idea inside of his career field.

Yes Ozzy was not perfect and he definitely did some stuff that was messed up. I think there are things that people will get a pass on. I am not sure who decides that list or how they determine who gets a pass and who doesn't. For me there are some hard lines that you don't cross. I will never accept that alcohol or drugs made you say certain things. I have been high as a kite before and I have never went on a racist rant. The drugs don't put those things in your head and make you say them. The thoughts have to already be there in the first place. The alcohol and drugs remove your filter and you are less likely to hold back and you will say what you really feel.