‘A wonderful soul and brilliant talent’: Spike reflects on Ozzy Osbourne’s legacy

Ozzy Osbourne, the gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice — and drug-and-alcohol ravaged id — of heavy metal, died Tuesday, just weeks after his farewell show. He was 76, The Associated Press reported.

KIRO host Spike O’Neill shared some personal memories he had with Ozzy, his storied history with drug abuse, and summarized the heartbreaking loss for rock ‘n’ roll.

“His lovely wife Sharon, who was his manager and practically saved his life because Ozzy for the longest time lived his life with pure debauchery,” Spike said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Ozzy passed surrounded by his family and love at the age of 76, just two weeks after he played a farewell show in Birmingham.”

Ozzy recently performed at Villa Park in a gig featuring performances from some of his favourite acts, including Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, for the star’s farewell from the music industry.

“You don’t get the chance to feel the love from your fans and from your compatriots in the Rock and Roll world like Ozzy did,” Spike said. “We kind of made fun of Ozzy’s farewell performance a little bit because it was a struggle for him vocally, to be doing that at the age of 76.”

Ozzy reunited with the original Black Sabbath band members, Tony Iommi, Terence “Geezer” Butler, and Bill Ward for the first time in roughly 20 years at the farewell concert.

Spike O’Neill meets Ozzy Osbourne

“I was lucky enough to meet Ozzie,” Spike said. “In 1994, I was working with the Bob Rivers Show, and we were making song parodies. We had an idea to do a Christmas parody of Iron Man, called I am Santa Claus.”

Iron Man, featured on Black Sabbath’s 1970 album Paranoid, notched nearly 10 million in sales across the globe, according to Chart Masters.

“We had to reach out to Ozzy Osbourne’s family and ask for permission to do a parody of Iron Man,” Spike said. “Not only did they welcome the idea for us to have fun with it, but Ozzy was also in town on tour and agreed to come out to Bob Rivers’ home and take part in our video, and he let us interview him.”

We were able to invite listeners out to meet Ozzy at Bob’s house, and he could not have been more gracious and warm. Also, this was 31 years ago. Ozzy had to be helped out of the car with a personal assistant who walked him into Bob’s house,” Spike continued.

Ozzy and Black Sabbath separated in 1979, and Ozzy went on to release his debut solo album, “Blizzard of Ozz,” which marked the first of 13 solo studio albums.

“He could not have been more gracious, loving, but also physically debilitated from, at that point in time, his years of abuse,” Spike said. “He was kicked out of Black Sabbath in the late 70s because, even for them, he did way too much partying.”

Ozzy Osbourne bites head off bat

Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents’ groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show “The Osbournes.”

“Remember, there was the national coverage of Ozzy that he bit the head off a bat at a show in Iowa in 1982,” Spike said. “The story behind that was a kid brought the bat to the show, a dead bat, with the intent of throwing it on stage. He threw it on stage, and the bass player noticed this thing and pointed it out to Ozzy. He waddled over as he does, cause you know, when Ozzy performs, he’s in another place.”

Ozzy’s bat-eating incident became a career-defining moment in the rock legend’s history and has been a recurring topic mentioned in interviews with Ozzy ever since.

“He thought it was a rubber bat, and he reached out and bit the head off of it and immediately realized that he had screwed up, and this was a real bat,” Spike said. “Ozzy had to get rabies shots because of it, but he was always known as the guy who bit the head off of bats after that.”

Listen to the full conversation below.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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