WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 You know, when you picture a universally beloved 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:06.559 mainstream cultural treasure, you usually imagine 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.759 someone pristine. Right, someone very safe. Yeah, 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:12.439 exactly. Someone with this spotless record who, 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:15.160 I don't know, bakes cookies and never ever bites 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:17.359 the head off a live animal. That is definitely 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.839 not the standard resume for someone who gets 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:23.559 a royal tribute. Not at all. Yet if you look 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:26.980 back at the summer of 2025, you have the Kingsguard. 00:00:27.309 --> 00:00:29.929 The actual band of the Coldstream Guards at Buckingham 00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:32.950 Palace playing the heavy metal anthem Paranoid. 00:00:33.090 --> 00:00:35.850 Which is just wild. It's unbelievable and they 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:39.390 were playing it to honor a man who once got arrested 00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:42.049 for drunkenly urinating on a monument in Texas 00:00:42.049 --> 00:00:44.369 while wearing his future wife's dress. It really 00:00:44.369 --> 00:00:46.390 is the ultimate cultural paradox. I mean you 00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:49.310 have the absolute pinnacle of the British establishment 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:52.549 formally honoring a man who spent decades acting 00:00:52.549 --> 00:00:54.750 as the literal antithesis of that establishment. 00:00:55.049 --> 00:00:57.710 Totally. Well, welcome to today's Deep Dive. 00:00:57.950 --> 00:01:00.390 We have a massive, fascinating mission for you 00:01:00.390 --> 00:01:04.890 today. We are looking at a comprehensive encyclopedic 00:01:04.890 --> 00:01:07.849 source covering the life, the wildly chaotic 00:01:07.849 --> 00:01:10.230 career, and, you know, the recent passing of 00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:12.390 John Michael Osborne. Universally known, of course, 00:01:12.609 --> 00:01:16.129 as Ozzy. Right. OK, let's unpack this. How did 00:01:16.129 --> 00:01:19.709 a bullied, severely dyslexic kid from a bleak 00:01:19.709 --> 00:01:22.629 industrial town in England, a guy who was famously 00:01:22.629 --> 00:01:24.930 fired from his own band for extreme substance 00:01:24.930 --> 00:01:27.890 abuse, become not just a pioneer of heavy metal, 00:01:28.049 --> 00:01:31.069 but like a reality TV patriarch? And a national 00:01:31.069 --> 00:01:33.670 hero, really? Yeah, a national hero whose death 00:01:33.670 --> 00:01:35.890 brought an entire country to a standstill. To 00:01:35.890 --> 00:01:38.129 really grasp how that happened, we have to look 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:40.069 completely past the myth. We need to wipe away 00:01:40.069 --> 00:01:42.430 the stadium lights, the bat biting, the hollow 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:44.920 Right, the theatrical stuff. Exactly. We had 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:46.859 to set the scene where this actually began. Yeah. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:48.959 Because we aren't starting with rock stardom. 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:52.159 We are starting in the grim, smog -choked reality 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:55.959 of 1960s Birmingham. Which was rough. Very rough. 00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.659 Specifically, we're looking at a tiny, cramped 00:01:59.659 --> 00:02:03.159 two -bedroom home at 14 Lodge Road in Aston. 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.780 surrounded by these towering, just deafening 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:08.919 factories. The sources paint a picture of his 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:11.180 youth that is incredibly bleak. I mean, it's 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.539 a purely survival -focused environment. Right. 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:16.020 His dad worked night shifts as a toolmaker at 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:18.259 the General Electric Company. His mom worked 00:02:18.259 --> 00:02:21.240 at a Lucas factory. And Ozzy was dealing with 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.819 severe dyslexia in an era before schools really 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:26.840 know how to identify or support that. Right, 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:29.240 which meant he was just labeled as stupid. Oh, 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:32.060 man. Yeah, he suffered horrible abuse from school 00:02:32.060 --> 00:02:34.370 bullies because of it. and the psychological 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:37.110 weight of that environment was crushing. The 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:39.590 sources note he even attempted suicide multiple 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:42.129 times as a teenager. Wow. It's a foundational 00:02:42.129 --> 00:02:44.629 trauma that deeply defined his worldview early 00:02:44.629 --> 00:02:46.729 on. And his early attempts to find a place in 00:02:46.729 --> 00:02:48.550 the world did not go well either. I mean, he 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:50.909 leaves school at 15. Right. Just go work? Yeah. 00:02:50.990 --> 00:02:53.389 He works in a slaughterhouse. He tunes car horns 00:02:53.389 --> 00:02:56.430 in a factory. And eventually at 17, he robs a 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:59.009 clothes shop and gets caught. And this is a defining 00:02:59.009 --> 00:03:02.280 moment. Yeah, this detail really stood out to 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:05.560 me. His dad refuses to pay the fine. He just 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.479 leaves his teenage son in Winson Green Prison 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.759 for six weeks to teach him a lesson. Which tells 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:14.580 you everything you need to know about the harsh 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:17.460 unsentimental working class reality he grew up 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:20.740 in. Survival was hard and mistakes weren't coddled. 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:23.360 Not at all. But it's actually in this suffocating, 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:26.560 incredibly bleak environment that he experiences 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:30.180 a profound shift. When he was 14, he heard the 00:03:30.180 --> 00:03:33.780 Beatles, She Loves You. Which, to a kid in industrial 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:35.560 Birmingham, must have sounded like it was dropping 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:38.539 in from an alien planet. It was literally a transmission 00:03:38.539 --> 00:03:40.500 from another universe. For a kid who thought 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:42.860 his entire future was a factory floor or a jail 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:45.500 cell, that song showed him an escape route actually 00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:48.099 existed. He realized in that moment... He was 00:03:48.099 --> 00:03:50.039 going to be a rock star. So he teams up with 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:52.360 some local guys, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:54.759 Ward. The original lineup. Right. And they bounce 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:57.539 through some terrible band names, like Polka 00:03:57.539 --> 00:04:00.139 Tulk Blues and Earth. Earth was a terrible fit. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.300 Yeah, before finally landing on Black Sabbath 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:05.360 in 1969. And looking at the sources, I want to 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.939 float an analogy to you. OK, let's hear it. It 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:10.020 seems to me that early heavy metal wasn't just 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:13.060 a musical genre, it was engineered to be a sonic 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:16.000 horror movie. Like they literally named themselves 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.279 after a horror film because they realized people 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:20.399 actually paid money to go to the cinema and get 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:23.360 frightened. Why not do that with music? That 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:26.360 is exactly the mechanism at play. The catalyst 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:29.480 for this shift was their bassist, Geezer Butler. 00:04:30.379 --> 00:04:33.079 He'd been reading an occult book and woke up 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:36.519 to see this dark, terrifying figure at the end 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:39.459 of his bed. Just a total nightmare. Right. He 00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:41.420 tells Ozzy about this nightmare, and together 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:44.240 they write the song Black Sabbath. It was a highly 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.420 deliberate choice to pivot to gloomy sounds, 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:49.139 heavy blues, and dark lyrics. It was a reflection 00:04:49.139 --> 00:04:51.420 of the post -war industrial wasteland they were 00:04:51.420 --> 00:04:53.699 living in. While bands in California were singing 00:04:53.699 --> 00:04:56.959 about peace and flowers, Black Sabbath was singing 00:04:56.959 --> 00:04:59.439 about the dread they felt every day. But I have 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:01.720 to push back a little here on the idea of Ozzy 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:05.129 as an evil genius architect of this genre. Was 00:05:05.129 --> 00:05:07.930 Ozzy the actual mastermind of this sound or was 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:10.550 he just a guy with a weirdly compelling voice 00:05:10.550 --> 00:05:12.569 who happened to be standing in the right room 00:05:12.569 --> 00:05:15.750 when Tony Iommi started playing those heavy detuned 00:05:15.750 --> 00:05:18.569 riffs? What's fascinating here is that the sound 00:05:18.569 --> 00:05:21.290 wasn't the product of one mastermind. It was 00:05:21.290 --> 00:05:24.649 the chemical reaction of the band. Ozzy's vocal 00:05:24.649 --> 00:05:27.970 delivery is described in the sources as a hesitant, 00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:30.610 brummy accent. It's not polished at all. No, 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:33.189 not classically trained or polished. It was eerie, 00:05:33.610 --> 00:05:35.509 it was desperate, and it almost sounded like 00:05:35.509 --> 00:05:38.389 a siren wailing over a factory floor. When you 00:05:38.389 --> 00:05:41.269 synthesize that unique, desperate vocal style 00:05:41.269 --> 00:05:44.149 with Iommi's dark, crushing guitar riffs, it 00:05:44.149 --> 00:05:46.560 creates magic. Yes, it creates a completely new 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:49.060 architecture of sound. It was four working -class 00:05:49.060 --> 00:05:51.639 kids violently channeling their environment into 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:53.540 audio. And it connected instantly. I mean, they 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:55.740 had massive enduring success right out of the 00:05:55.740 --> 00:05:58.220 gate. Four consecutive million selling albums 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:01.199 in the U .S. Huge numbers. But that same chemical 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.300 reaction that made Black Sabbath so brilliant 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:06.410 musically was highly volatile personally. because 00:06:06.410 --> 00:06:08.350 they weren't just channeling their dark environment. 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:11.970 They were trying to numb it. And by 1979, the 00:06:11.970 --> 00:06:15.029 numbing agents completely took over. You can't 00:06:15.029 --> 00:06:17.509 continually channel that much darkness without 00:06:17.509 --> 00:06:20.129 some of it seeping into the foundation. The breaking 00:06:20.129 --> 00:06:23.389 point arrives in 1979. Right. The band is falling 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:25.529 apart in the studio. Everyone is heavily using 00:06:25.529 --> 00:06:28.720 drugs and alcohol, but... Ozzy's behavior becomes 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.939 so erratic and so unreliable that Tony Iommi 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:34.399 and the band make the decision to fire him. Think 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:36.600 about that for a second. Imagine getting fired 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.100 from Black Sabbath in the 1970s for partying 00:06:39.100 --> 00:06:41.079 too hard. It's hard to even fathom. That is like 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:43.079 getting kicked out of the Navy for liking water 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:45.600 too much. It really highlights just how extreme 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:48.339 the situation was. Ozzy had his first experience 00:06:48.339 --> 00:06:51.300 with cocaine back in 1971, introduced by Leslie 00:06:51.300 --> 00:06:54.220 West, and Ozzy's own description of that moment 00:06:54.220 --> 00:06:56.639 was visceral. He compared it to the intensity 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:59.360 of having your first F. Wow. Yeah. By the time 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:01.779 he's ejected from Sabbath, the addiction is absolute, 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.279 and he goes into complete free fall. The numbers 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:06.259 in the source material regarding this period 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:09.720 are staggering. He locks himself in a Los Angeles 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:13.000 hotel room for three months. Three whole months. 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.439 He takes his severance from the band, which is 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:19.240 96 ,000 pounds, and spends it entirely on drugs 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.060 and alcohol. Every penny. He fully expects that 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:23.899 when the money runs out, he's just going to go 00:07:23.899 --> 00:07:27.019 back to Birmingham and live on the local unemployment 00:07:27.019 --> 00:07:29.800 benefits. He was completely resigned to the end 00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:32.680 of his career. And this is where we see the introduction 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:35.519 of the most crucial figure in his life. Sharon 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:37.920 Arden. Who was the daughter of Sabbath's manager, 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:40.920 Don Arden? Exactly. She intervenes, pulls him 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:43.300 out of that hotel room, and essentially forces 00:07:43.300 --> 00:07:46.350 him to stand back up. She mandates that he start 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:49.810 a solo project, which becomes The Blizzard Laws. 00:07:50.050 --> 00:07:52.189 Sharon wasn't just his manager. She was essentially 00:07:52.189 --> 00:07:54.689 the guardrail on a treacherous mountain road. 00:07:55.009 --> 00:07:56.990 She kept him from going over the cliff. That's 00:07:56.990 --> 00:07:58.709 a great way to put it. And she pairs him with 00:07:58.709 --> 00:08:01.310 Randy Rhoades, this absolute prodigy of a guitar 00:08:01.310 --> 00:08:04.709 player. They create two massive genre -defining 00:08:04.709 --> 00:08:08.250 albums. Ozzy is back on top. But then, in 1982, 00:08:08.610 --> 00:08:11.339 the narrative takes a horrific turn. Yes, and 00:08:11.339 --> 00:08:13.680 the circumstances are incredibly tragic. They're 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:16.339 on tour in Florida. The tour bus driver, who 00:08:16.339 --> 00:08:19.060 is also a pilot, decides to take a light aircraft 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:21.920 and essentially buzzes the tour bus as a practical 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:24.620 joke to wake up the band. Such a terrible idea. 00:08:24.819 --> 00:08:27.579 Right. But he drastically misjudges the clearance. 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:30.439 The plane clips the top of the bus, spirals out 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:32.879 of control, and crashes into a nearby mansion. 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:35.860 Randy Rhodes, along with the pilot and the band's 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:38.039 makeup artist, are killed instantly. Let's just 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:40.299 pause on that for a second. That isn't just a 00:08:40.299 --> 00:08:43.039 rock and roll setback. That is a deeply traumatic, 00:08:43.340 --> 00:08:46.379 horrific event. Truly horrific. Ozzy is right 00:08:46.379 --> 00:08:48.980 there on the bus. He experiences the violent 00:08:48.980 --> 00:08:51.440 death of his close friend and primary collaborator 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.100 firsthand. The psychological toll of that, I 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:57.039 mean, to survive professional rejection by your 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:59.259 childhood friends, rebuild your life, and then 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:02.059 be hit so quickly by this shocking personal tragedy, 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.980 it's unimaginable. It plunged him into a profound 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:07.450 depression. But if we connect this to the bigger 00:09:07.450 --> 00:09:10.970 picture, this moment solidifies the defining 00:09:10.970 --> 00:09:14.190 rhythm of Ozzy's entire life. It is a cyclical 00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:17.870 pattern, intense creation, followed by self -destruction 00:09:17.870 --> 00:09:20.850 or profound tragedy, followed by a miraculous 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:23.110 resurrection. And that resurrection is almost 00:09:23.110 --> 00:09:26.129 always facilitated by his support system, primarily 00:09:26.129 --> 00:09:29.169 Sharon. But as he rebuilt his career in the 1980s, 00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:31.549 Ozzy was hitting that guardrail at 100 miles 00:09:31.549 --> 00:09:34.809 an hour on a daily basis. His stage persona and 00:09:34.809 --> 00:09:37.110 his out -of -control lifestyle began to completely 00:09:37.110 --> 00:09:39.070 blur. And this is where the public perception 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:42.190 of him really diverges from reality. We enter 00:09:42.190 --> 00:09:44.909 the era of the myth -making. The infamous moments 00:09:44.909 --> 00:09:47.210 that cemented his reputation permanently as the 00:09:47.210 --> 00:09:49.870 madman of rock in the pre -internet era, where 00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:52.789 rumors and shocking behavior were the ultimate 00:09:52.789 --> 00:09:55.549 viral marketing. We all know the hits. 1981, 00:09:55.710 --> 00:09:58.110 he He's at a pivotal meeting with CBS Records 00:09:58.110 --> 00:10:01.830 executives in Los Angeles. He is highly intoxicated. 00:10:02.269 --> 00:10:04.049 He originally brought doves into the meeting 00:10:04.049 --> 00:10:05.789 with the intention of releasing them as a sign 00:10:05.789 --> 00:10:08.809 of peace. Instead, he grabs one, bites its head 00:10:08.809 --> 00:10:11.990 off, and lets the blood drip from his lips. Security 00:10:11.990 --> 00:10:14.129 escorts him out and he bites the head off a second 00:10:14.129 --> 00:10:17.159 dove on the way out the door. In Des Moines, 00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:20.740 Iowa, a fan threw a bat on stage. Ozzy assumes 00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:23.500 it's a rubber toy, bites the head off that, realizes 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:25.899 instantly it's real, and has to be rushed to 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:28.519 the hospital for a series of incredibly painful 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:31.740 rabies shots. Add to that, getting arrested in 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.620 Texas for drunkenly urinating on the Alamo Cenotaph, 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:37.399 a sacred monument to the dead, while wearing 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:39.679 Sharon's dress. Which is just bizarre. Right. 00:10:39.940 --> 00:10:42.019 It's easy to look back at the bat and the dress 00:10:42.019 --> 00:10:44.419 and laugh at the absurdity of it, but the sources 00:10:44.419 --> 00:10:46.759 don't shy away from the deeply disturbing reality 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:50.039 beneath all of this. He drunkenly fired his entire 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:52.980 band in 1982 and had zero memory of it the next 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:55.919 day. And it gets worse. Yeah. During one drug 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:58.519 rampage, he admitted to shooting 17 of his own 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:01.139 pet cats. And the most terrifying incident was 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:04.299 in 1989. He returned from a festival in a complete 00:11:04.299 --> 00:11:06.559 drug and alcohol haze and actually attempted 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:09.799 to strangle Sharon. That 1989 event was the ultimate 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:11.980 breaking point. He woke up in jail with no memory 00:11:11.980 --> 00:11:14.080 of what he had done and it led to six months 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:17.100 in intensive rehabilitation. The darkness wasn't 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:19.320 an act, it was a severe addiction destroying 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:22.740 his life. But publicly, his wild behavior was 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:25.080 feeding a very different kind of fire in the 00:11:25.080 --> 00:11:28.340 1980s. The satanic panic. Right. Here's where 00:11:28.340 --> 00:11:30.620 it gets really interesting. If you are a parent 00:11:30.620 --> 00:11:33.879 in the 1980s listening to the news, Ozzy was 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:36.700 portrayed as a literal demonic threat to your 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:39.620 children. Parents actually sued him, claiming 00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:42.860 his song, Suicide Solution, contained subliminal 00:11:42.860 --> 00:11:44.779 messages that caused their kids to end their 00:11:44.779 --> 00:11:47.340 lives. Which was thrown out. Exactly. The courts 00:11:47.340 --> 00:11:49.659 ultimately ruled in Ozzy's favor, noting that 00:11:49.659 --> 00:11:51.960 there was no connection at all, and the song 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:54.059 itself was actually a warning about the slow 00:11:54.059 --> 00:11:57.360 suicide of alcoholism. But the contrast here 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:00.000 is bizarre, because Ozzy described himself in 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.659 a documentary as being a Dennis the Menace kind 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:04.980 of crazy, not some malevolent force. And the 00:12:04.980 --> 00:12:07.120 source material highlights just how deep deeply 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:09.440 misunderstood his actual beliefs were during 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:12.539 this entire era. To be perfectly objective about 00:12:12.539 --> 00:12:15.360 the facts presented in our sources, Ozzy Osbourne 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.320 was a baptized Christian. Which people never 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.159 believed. I know. He prayed in his dressing room 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.240 before every single show. Near the end of his 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:26.120 life, he kept a Bible with him at all times. 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:29.919 He was reportedly very frustrated by the public's 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.559 perception that he was a Satanist. He even told 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:35.000 a story about jokingly joining a Christian protest 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.980 outside his own concert. He stood with the protesters 00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:40.679 holding a broomstick with a smiley face on it, 00:12:40.940 --> 00:12:43.019 and they didn't even recognize him. Wait, so 00:12:43.019 --> 00:12:45.399 the guy who bit the head off a bat was actually 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:47.320 annoyed that people thought he was a Satanist? 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.399 That cognitive dissonance must have been massive 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:52.419 for him. And politically, he was just as hard 00:12:52.419 --> 00:12:54.840 to pin down, right? We have to be objective here, 00:12:54.860 --> 00:12:57.259 but what do the sources say? Exactly. We were 00:12:57.259 --> 00:12:59.519 just reporting the text here. Right. The sources 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.559 show a complex figure who completely defied any 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:05.039 simple categorization, which is honestly common 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.539 for working class anti -establishment figures. 00:13:07.580 --> 00:13:10.259 They rarely fit into neat partisan boxes. Right. 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:13.360 To report exactly what the sources outline. He 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:15.799 was highly critical of Donald Trump, eventually 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.059 banning Trump's campaign from using his music. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:22.259 In 2022, he dedicated an album to Ukraine and 00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:25.019 pledged proceeds to volunteers there, with him 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:27.639 and Sharon even planning to host Ukrainian refugees 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:29.950 at their estate. Which is a very clear stance. 00:13:30.129 --> 00:13:33.509 Yes. But at the same time, in 2024, he and Sharon 00:13:33.509 --> 00:13:35.889 signed an open letter strongly opposing the cultural 00:13:35.889 --> 00:13:38.870 boycott of Israeli artists and later signed another 00:13:38.870 --> 00:13:41.529 calling for an investigation into alleged anti 00:13:41.529 --> 00:13:44.029 -Israel bias at the BBC. So he was all over the 00:13:44.029 --> 00:13:47.029 map. He was highly opinionated, but he rejected 00:13:47.029 --> 00:13:50.120 modern partisan packaging. Ultimately, he acknowledged 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:52.679 he had a symbiotic relationship with his detractors. 00:13:53.299 --> 00:13:55.759 The angry evangelists and the outraged politicians 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:57.480 were the ones keeping his name in the headlines. 00:13:57.759 --> 00:13:59.960 They gave him millions of dollars in free advertising 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:02.799 by trying to ban him. But then, as we move into 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:06.120 the 2000s, the narrative shifts again. And this 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:08.730 is the part that fascinates me most. How does 00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:11.289 a man who lived that hard, who abused his body 00:14:11.289 --> 00:14:14.049 that thoroughly for decades, survive into his 00:14:14.049 --> 00:14:16.450 70s and somehow pivot to becoming America's dad? 00:14:16.690 --> 00:14:18.889 By doing what he and Sharon always did best. 00:14:19.490 --> 00:14:21.990 Breaking the mold and completely changing the 00:14:21.990 --> 00:14:26.789 context of who he was. In 2002, MTV premiered 00:14:26.789 --> 00:14:29.309 the Osbournes. Which was totally revolutionary. 00:14:29.610 --> 00:14:32.450 Completely. I want you to imagine the sheer whiplash 00:14:32.450 --> 00:14:35.970 of being a terrified parent protesting an Ozzy 00:14:35.970 --> 00:14:38.909 Osbourne concert in the 1980s, screaming that 00:14:38.909 --> 00:14:41.950 he's a threat to the youth, only to turn on MTV 00:14:41.950 --> 00:14:44.730 20 years later and watch this exact same guy 00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:47.129 bumbling around his kitchen. It was hilarious. 00:14:47.210 --> 00:14:49.129 He's struggling to operate a television remote, 00:14:49.370 --> 00:14:52.049 he's cleaning up after tiny dogs, and he's bickering 00:14:52.049 --> 00:14:53.750 with his teenage kids about taking out - the 00:14:53.750 --> 00:14:56.929 trash. That juxtaposition is exactly why it worked. 00:14:57.309 --> 00:14:59.450 It took the terrifying Prince of Darkness and 00:14:59.450 --> 00:15:01.809 placed him in the most mundane domestic situations 00:15:01.809 --> 00:15:04.570 possible. Yeah. It pioneered the entire genre 00:15:04.570 --> 00:15:07.570 of celebrity family reality television by showing 00:15:07.570 --> 00:15:09.470 that rock stars still have to deal with broken 00:15:09.470 --> 00:15:12.490 microwaves. And financially, it was paired with 00:15:12.490 --> 00:15:15.490 another masterstroke by Sharon. Ozfest. Oh. When 00:15:15.490 --> 00:15:18.570 the Lollapalooza Festival rejected Ozzy, Sharon 00:15:18.570 --> 00:15:21.340 simply built her own festival. It grossed over 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:25.179 $170 million, launched countless new bands, and 00:15:25.179 --> 00:15:28.019 made Ozzy the first hard rock star to hit $50 00:15:28.019 --> 00:15:31.580 million in merchandise sales alone. But the physical 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:34.559 toll of his past finally started catching up 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:38.710 with him, yet he just kept surviving. In 2003, 00:15:38.909 --> 00:15:42.230 he had a near -fatal quad bike crash, where he 00:15:42.230 --> 00:15:44.730 actually stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated 00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:47.029 on the ground by his bodyguard. A very close 00:15:47.029 --> 00:15:49.549 call. And of course, he began a long battle with 00:15:49.549 --> 00:15:52.649 the genetic form of Parkinson's disease. He survived 00:15:52.649 --> 00:15:55.269 so much chemical and physical trauma that he 00:15:55.269 --> 00:15:57.450 literally became a scientific mystery. Quite 00:15:57.450 --> 00:15:59.830 literally. In 2010, scientists at a Massachusetts 00:15:59.830 --> 00:16:02.710 company called Gnome actually sequenced Ozzie's 00:16:02.710 --> 00:16:05.840 entire genome. They sequenced his DNA. Yes. They 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:07.679 wanted to understand the biological mechanisms 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:09.799 that allowed him to still be alive after decades 00:16:09.799 --> 00:16:12.080 of extreme substance abuse. They were looking 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:14.519 for specific genetic mutations that explained 00:16:14.519 --> 00:16:16.659 how his liver and brain didn't just shut down 00:16:16.659 --> 00:16:19.299 entirely in the 1970s, which is incorrect. This 00:16:19.299 --> 00:16:21.240 raises an important question that historians 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:24.159 of rock will debate for decades. How much of 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:26.820 the madman of rock was a carefully curated performance 00:16:26.820 --> 00:16:30.200 and how much was genuine, genetically bolstered 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:32.600 pathology? That is the million dollar question. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:34.879 And all of these disparate elements, the genre 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:37.840 defining music, the chemical madness, the television 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.200 reality era, the medical resilience, they all 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:44.159 culminated in the final years of his life. It 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:46.440 proved that the boy from Aston Birmingham never 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:48.759 really lost his connection to his roots. The 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.179 final act of his career was remarkably triumphant, 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:53.559 especially considering his health. He reconciled 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:56.220 with Tony Iommi, resulting in Black Sabbath's 00:16:56.220 --> 00:16:58.899 final studio album, Thirteen, which incredibly 00:16:58.899 --> 00:17:02.159 was their first ever UK and U .S. number one 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:05.160 album together. Exactly. They completed a massive 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:07.799 farewell tour and his solo career surged again. 00:17:08.059 --> 00:17:10.299 He collaborated with modern pop stars like Post 00:17:10.299 --> 00:17:12.019 Malone, which put him right back in the Billboard 00:17:12.019 --> 00:17:14.720 top 10. Yeah. And he won multiple Grammys for 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:18.079 his 2022 album, Patient Number Nine. And then 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:20.880 you have the poignancy of that final performance, 00:17:21.420 --> 00:17:25.480 July 5, 2025. It was billed as back to the beginning. 00:17:26.579 --> 00:17:28.839 He's at Villa Park in Birmingham, performing 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:31.259 alongside the original Black Sabbath lineup. 00:17:31.299 --> 00:17:34.019 The huge homecoming. Huge. There are over 40 00:17:34.019 --> 00:17:37.099 ,000 spectators there in person and almost 6 00:17:37.099 --> 00:17:39.039 million people watching the live stream around 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.410 the world. The Parkinson's had progressed to 00:17:41.410 --> 00:17:43.329 the point where he was unable to stand, so he 00:17:43.329 --> 00:17:46.069 performed the entire set seated on a massive 00:17:46.069 --> 00:17:48.609 black throne. It was a deeply emotional moment 00:17:48.609 --> 00:17:51.529 for everyone watching. Just 17 days later, on 00:17:51.529 --> 00:17:54.690 the morning of July 22, 2025, he passed away 00:17:54.690 --> 00:17:56.369 at his home in Buckinghamshire at the age of 00:17:56.369 --> 00:17:59.829 76, surrounded by his family. Wow. The cause 00:17:59.829 --> 00:18:01.890 was ultimately a heart attack, compounded by 00:18:01.890 --> 00:18:04.130 his long, exhausting battle with Parkinson's. 00:18:04.250 --> 00:18:06.569 And the aftermath of his death. I mean, the contrast 00:18:06.569 --> 00:18:08.230 of his funeral is just hard to wrap your head 00:18:08.230 --> 00:18:10.009 around. The procession took place in Birmingham 00:18:10.009 --> 00:18:13.210 on July 30. They closed down Broad Street. Tens 00:18:13.210 --> 00:18:15.509 of thousands of fans lined the route just to 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:17.829 pay their respects. An incredible turnout. The 00:18:17.829 --> 00:18:20.009 cortege stopped at the Black Sabbath Bridge, 00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:22.250 where the family formally met with the Lord Mayor. 00:18:22.829 --> 00:18:24.750 And, as we mentioned at the very start of the 00:18:24.750 --> 00:18:27.450 show, the band of the Cold Stream Guards played 00:18:27.450 --> 00:18:29.450 Paranoid during the changing of the guard at 00:18:29.450 --> 00:18:32.589 Buckingham Palace. So what does this all mean? 00:18:32.910 --> 00:18:35.950 It means that Ozzy Osbourne transcended the music 00:18:35.950 --> 00:18:38.470 he helped create. He wasn't just a heavy metal 00:18:38.470 --> 00:18:41.589 singer. He was the ultimate avatar of survival. 00:18:41.690 --> 00:18:44.809 Yeah. He took the darkest bleakest parts of his 00:18:44.809 --> 00:18:47.450 youth in industrial England, and turned that 00:18:47.450 --> 00:18:49.809 specific darkness into a globally recognized 00:18:49.809 --> 00:18:53.049 art form. He survived decades of self -inflicted 00:18:53.049 --> 00:18:55.970 damage. He survived a shifting cultural landscape, 00:18:56.390 --> 00:18:58.630 and he ultimately won the world over by simply 00:18:58.630 --> 00:19:01.630 stubbornly refusing to go away. It is an unbelievable 00:19:01.630 --> 00:19:03.609 trajectory, just to recap this journey for you. 00:19:03.849 --> 00:19:06.089 We've gone from a dyslexic kid stealing clothes 00:19:06.089 --> 00:19:09.250 in Aston to a young man defining the entire genre 00:19:09.250 --> 00:19:11.869 of heavy metal. We've seen him fired by his best 00:19:11.869 --> 00:19:14.710 friends, resurrected by his future wife, survive 00:19:14.710 --> 00:19:17.470 a horrific plane crash, revolutionize reality 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:19.849 television, become a literal medical marvel, 00:19:20.210 --> 00:19:22.569 and finally pass away as an absolute national 00:19:22.569 --> 00:19:25.210 legend. His legacy is secured not just in the 00:19:25.210 --> 00:19:27.329 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which he was inducted 00:19:27.329 --> 00:19:29.690 into twice, by the way, once with Sabbath and 00:19:29.690 --> 00:19:32.759 once as the solo artist. but in how he fundamentally 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:35.619 shifted global culture. So here is our takeaway 00:19:35.619 --> 00:19:38.339 for you today. Whether you are facing a massive 00:19:38.339 --> 00:19:40.599 creative roadblock in your own life, or you're 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:42.900 just feeling completely overwhelmed by circumstances 00:19:42.900 --> 00:19:46.160 out of your control, Ozzie's story is a bizarre, 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:48.839 chaotic, but completely genuine testament to 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:51.640 the power of resilience. It proves the importance 00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:54.079 of finding the right collaborators, like Iommi, 00:19:54.339 --> 00:19:56.359 Rhodes, and above all, Sharon, and the value 00:19:56.359 --> 00:19:58.839 of never taking yourself too seriously. Even 00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:00.779 when the rest of the world decides to take you 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:03.240 very seriously indeed. Exactly. Which leaves 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:05.140 us with a final thought for you to mull over. 00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:08.240 When society's ultimate outcasts and rebels, 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:10.759 the ones who terrify parents, get arrested, and 00:20:10.759 --> 00:20:13.019 bite the heads off bats, eventually become embraced 00:20:13.019 --> 00:20:16.019 as beloved national treasures, does that embrace 00:20:16.019 --> 00:20:18.359 validate their original rebellion, or does it 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:20.359 just mean the establishment finally figured out 00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:23.200 how to package, sanitize, and sell them? The 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:25.299 guy who peed on the Alamo got a royal tribute 00:20:25.299 --> 00:20:27.339 from the Kingsguard. It makes you wonder who 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:29.579 the joke is really on. Thank you so much for 00:20:29.579 --> 00:20:31.140 joining us on this Deep Dive. We'll see you next 00:20:31.140 --> 00:20:31.359 time.