It’s hard to imagine the world of hard rock without Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away this week at age 76.
From his groundbreaking work with Black Sabbath to his breakout solo career and even his later turn as a reality TV star, Ozzy left an indelible mark on popular culture.
We sat down with Nik Carter of 95.5 KLOS radio in Los Angeles, who knew him personally, to discuss Ozzy’s immense influence, his evolution from “Prince of Darkness” to beloved elder statesman, and his lasting legacy.
Q: Before the world knew him as Ozzy Osbourne the solo artist or reality TV figure, he was Ozzy in Black Sabbath. How impactful was Black Sabbath to the early days of heavy metal?
Nik Carter: It’s almost incalculable, it’s almost impossible to put his influence into context. He’s part of the framework of heavy metal, yet he never flew the flag for heavy metal himself. He never saw himself as a metal artist; he saw himself as a blues singer. His favorite band was The Beatles, for crying out loud! I remember asking Sharon [Osbourne] about ten years ago, “How aware is he? Does he know that he’s Ozzy Osbourne?” And she was like, “No, he has no idea. He’s just a working-class kid from Birmingham who, you know, it was either this or work in a sawmill somewhere.”
But the influence of both Sabbath and Ozzy isn’t just rock or metal or hard rock. Virtually anyone who’s ever picked up a microphone or a pair of drumsticks or a guitar and wanted to make noise with those instruments was influenced by Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne himself. Every genre imaginable has been touched by him.
Ozzy Osbourne jokingly threatens Nik Carter with an awards statue. (Nik Carter)
For me, I’ll say this: I’m wearing my Black Lives Matter shirt here, in the Sabbath Masters of Reality font. I got this from BlackSabbath.com a few years ago because, as a man of color, I can tell you, as much as people don’t want to acknowledge it, the heavy metal and hard rock community isn’t the most open and accepting. I’ve been to thousands of shows over my career, and I’ve been called the N-word to my face here and there. When the Black Lives Matter thing started to happen, Ozzy and Sharon were one of the first ones to say, “Alright, we’re on it. We’re part of it.” They endorsed it, and something like that goes so far with kids who probably wouldn’t have even imagined. They’re not even seeing it as social justice, per se; they’re just seeing it as, “Alright, everybody’s everybody. We’re all part of this global community who love Ozzy.” You can’t beat that. The best teaching tool in the world is just living.
Q: In the early ’80s, Ozzy was kind of scary. There was that whole type of metal that encompassed Motörhead and Dio, Iron Maiden and certainly Black Sabbath. It was menacing by design. Then, fast forward over the decades, and Ozzy Osbourne becomes more mainstream, less scary, and becomes sort of this elder statesman. Tell us about his evolution from your perspective.
Carter: I think because he became such an almost warm and fuzzy cultural ambassador for not just music but pop culture in general, through shows like The Osbournes and just his great sense of humor about himself, people have forgotten that they were afraid of him. This is a guy who bit the head off a bat. He bit the head off a dove! He got really, really intoxicated, wore one of his wife’s dresses, and relieved himself on the Alamo, and was banned for a decade from there. He was a crazy man. He was an absolute wild man.
But over time, partially with Sharon really steering his career, she really sort of remade him. When The Osbournes became such a hit on MTV, he was still doing his Ozzfest show, which was just like the who’s who of heavy metal. I remember telling him and Sharon both that I would see a change in the audience. You’d go to see Ozzfest and you’d see more minivans or family station wagons, and you’d think, “Well, it’s going to be a long day for them.”
Musician Ozzy Osbourne signs copies of his album “Patient Number 9” at Fingerprints Music on September 10, 2022, in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
I remember Ozzy told me once he was doing a show – I forgot where it was, maybe Austin. He was in town and he was walking along by himself. He went to go buy a cup of coffee, and an older woman with probably family, a couple of kids, saw him on the street and said, “Hey, what are you doing here?” He said, “Oh, you know, I’m in town for a show.” “What kind of show?” She had come to Ozzy by The Osbournes and had no idea that he was the voice of heavy metal. So, she was just completely dumbfounded when he said he was there for a concert.
Q: Do you think there is, or has been, a bigger figure in hard rock or metal than Ozzy Osbourne?
Carter: Absolutely not. I don’t think there has been. I know it’s cliché, but there never will be another like him because, in addition to the fact that he was such a character and such a pop culture presence, the voice is just unique. It was kind of otherworldly. It was both comforting and just jarring. You go back to those early Black Sabbath albums, and it’s just like, “What is this moaning coming from the speakers?” And then, of course, all through the ’80s, when he really became a superstar – I was saying to somebody else, he was dressed like Liberace, wearing sequins.
He was one of the few artists who was able to navigate that bridge between the ’70s and “rock and roll” or classic rock, and was able to thrive during the ’80s and the very visual time of MTV. This country loves second acts. He had how many second acts? The ’70s with Black Sabbath, the ’80s as a solo superstar, the ’90s and the early ’00s as part of just an elder statesman of hard rock and metal with Ozzfest, and then, of course, a huge pop culture phenom with The Osbournes, which basically was the MTV generation’s Munsters, really.
Q: How do you feel about the way he went out?
Carter: You know, I may be one of the few who literally sat and watched all nine hours of the “Back to the Beginning” concert. I got up early and I went to my computer, and I watched the whole thing. I think everyone knew that he would be leaving us soon. I don’t think anybody imagined he would be leaving us this shortly afterwards.
The last time I interviewed him face-to-face, I think it was 2019, and I remember his speech was sharper than I’d ever remembered. His eyes were very, very clear, but he had a little bit of a tremor in his right hand. He was completely lucid. He made more sense than I think he had ever made talking to me in the ten or so times I’d actually hung out with him. But, you know, I kind of saw something there.
It’s one of these things where he brought the world together, and he left us. One thing that hasn’t really been publicized: whenever Sharon Osbourne and Ozzy are involved in something this big that’s a money-making venture, there’s always a charitable component to it. And that “Back to the Beginning” show, at last check, I think it generated $190 million for charity. That’s unheard of.
But at the end of the day, he really was just a guy who had a fuzzy heart. Every time I ever spoke to him, he always said, “God bless you, man.” The last words out of his mouth, he’d give me a hug, he’d say, “God bless you, man.” Very fond of crosses, had them everywhere. As I say, a lot of it was shtick, but I think he really had a good and truly pure heart.
