Watching Ozzy Osbourne perform at the Rams Season Opener in 2022 is like seeing a living legend. The day before the album’s release, he performed his brand-new track, “Patient Number 9,” and drove the crowd into a frenzy with his solo hit, “Crazy Train.” This otherworldly performance exudes a divine aura.
Ozzy Osbourne’s thirteenth studio album, “Patient Number 9,” is still the most recent in his discography despite a recent viral inclusion on Billy Morrison’s 2024 song “Crack Cocaine.” The song’s title track, which was played during the halftime show, depicts the spiraling insanity of a mentally ill prisoner who is destined to decay within their own confines.
As the front man of Black Sabbath, a band so staggeringly inventive that they unintentionally created a whole new subgenre of metal: doom, Ozzy Osbourne’s rise to prominence followed his role in creating the heavy metal craze.
Ozzy, who was born in Warwickshire, England, joined drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and guitarist Tony Iommi to establish Black Sabbath in Birmingham in 1968. Ozzy’s albums have solidified their place in heavy metal history, with hits like “Changes,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid” becoming well-known.
Due to Ozzy’s well-known addicted tendencies and self-destructive practices, Black Sabbath fired him after he made a lasting impression on 70s rock. Legendary metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio took Ozzy’s place. Two years later, the legendary track “Crazy Train,” from Ozzy’s 1981 debut solo album “Blizzard of Ozz,” which was co-produced by guitarist Randy Rhodes, another legendary figure in the metal genre, became popular.
The world was first exposed to the TV phenomenon “The Osbournes” in 2002, when Lewis Lamedica sang a jazz-swing rendition of “Crazy Train.” The show included Ozzy, his wife Sharon Osbourne, and two of Ozzy’s five children, Jack and Kelly Osbourne.
At the age of 73 during this halftime show, it’s absurd to think that Ozzy’s supporting group, which included Jane’s Addiction guitarists Zakk Wylde (age 55) and Andrew Watt (age 31), drummer Tommy Clufetos (age 42), and bassist Chris Cheney (age 52), grew up on his recordings before creating history with the man himself.
Ozzy’s farewell tour has been postponed multiple times due to his recuperation from a spine injury sustained in 2019. This delay has been compounded by the news that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2020. Even after more than ten years sober, Ozzy’s health continues to come up in recent interviews. He struggles with a variety of conditions, such as blood clots and “crippling” nerve pain.
Ozzy’s halftime performance at the Rams Season Opener, while being entangled in this medical web, is evidence of his commitment to being the godfather of heavy metal. His voice sounds like it was recorded in 1971 (with over 6.7 million views on YouTube), as if Parkinson’s disease couldn’t ruin Ozzy’s legacy.
