The Ben Maynard Program
"Tell Your Story". Everyone has a story. Not just the famous. This is a guest driven program but when we are "guest free", It's just YOU and ME! I love music and we will talk a lot about it. Enjoy the ride!
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The Ben Maynard Program
EP. 97 THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS: REMEMBERING OZZIE OSBOURNE
The music world lost a towering figure this week with the passing of Ozzy Osbourne at 76. In this heartfelt tribute episode, Ben Maynard welcomes Shannon Cox from Talking Rock Fan Podcast to honor the Prince of Darkness and several other music legends we recently lost.
Shannon brings his encyclopedic knowledge of Ozzy's career to the conversation as we journey through the icon's extraordinary life – from his humble beginnings in Birmingham to global metal stardom with Black Sabbath, through his remarkable solo career resurrection orchestrated with Sharon Osbourne. We explore Ozzy's uncanny talent for discovering extraordinary musicians, including Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde, Bob Daisley, and many others who helped shape his distinctive sound across decades.
The episode doesn't shy away from Ozzy's darker moments and struggles, but celebrates how he consistently reinvented himself despite health challenges and setbacks. We discuss his cultural impact through songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mama, I'm Coming Home," his creation of Ozzfest which launched countless emerging bands, and poignantly, his final performance at the "Back to the Beginning" concert where he reunited with the original Black Sabbath members one last time.
Beyond Ozzy, we pay tribute to other significant losses: jazz flugelhorn master Chuck Mangione, Golden Earring guitarist George Kooymans, and the wrestling phenomenon Hulk Hogan – examining their contributions and connections to the music world. Through personal stories, musical analysis, and fond remembrances, this episode captures why these figures mattered so deeply to fans and fellow artists alike.
Whether you're a lifelong Sabbath devotee or simply appreciate music history, this conversation offers both nostalgia and insight into legends whose influence will continue to inspire generations. Subscribe now and join us for this celebration of musical pioneers who forever changed the landscape of entertainment.#tellyourstory #familymatters #benmaynard #timelesstracks #musicprogramming #musicprogram #topalbums #heartfeltstories #celebritycommentary #ozzyosbourne #theprinceofdarkness #hulkhogan #hulkamania #wwe
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Hey there, welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. Before we get started, a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. As you know, this program is available wherever you stream your podcast. Just search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there. Just do me a favor, subscribe to whatever, whatever streaming platform you're on. Okay, subscribe to the show and anytime a new episode drops you'll get notification.
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Speaker 1:All right, let's see Next. Follow me on Instagram. All one word Ben Maynard Program. And then, lastly, you can follow me on TikTok. That's the Ben Maynard Program, all right? So with that, plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure, for your dancing and listening pleasure. And it's been a really, really it's been a tough week in the music and entertainment business or industry, and so I wanted to bring on my good buddy, shannon Cox from Talking Rock Fan Podcast. So I'm going to do that right now, and there he is. What's up, shannon? How are you?
Speaker 2:So, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I I reached out to Shannon. I was like, look, dude, you know we've had this person, this person, this person and this person pass and um, and we're going to get into all that in a minute. I said, you know, um, about coming on, let's do a proper tribute and then let's share some stories and that kind of stuff. And he was like I'm all in, I'm like all right. So here we are.
Speaker 1:So before we get into it, of course the biggest name in music this week is the passing of Ozzy Osbourne. That was announced on Tuesday. Ozzy passing at 76. And because it's the biggest one, we're going to save that one for the end and we're going to touch on a couple of the names here. But before we get into Ozzy, I thought that you know Shannon and I could touch on some others, just because, like I said, I think that they deserve to be recognized anyway. So, shannon, I hope you're ready for that. Well, look, I know for a fact that you are just going to be just this. You're going to blow up with the Aussie and Black Sabbath stuff. So I'm really looking forward to that. But let's start with I think it was, I think it was yesterday it was announced that that jazz musician, flugel hornist, trumpeter, composer, chuck Mangione passed away. I think he was 84 years old. Are you familiar with Chuck at all?
Speaker 2:Just one song and why I remember it is from the doctor strange movie.
Speaker 2:okay okay, all right doctor strange before he gets all of his powers and everything he's doing brain surgery and or spinal surgery, I think it is and one of his techs likes to play Stump like Stump the Trunk almost. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they play obscure music for him and they play Chuck Mangione for him and of course Dr Strange nails it and gives him all these weird facts. It's like the first ever horn soloist number one hit, and so it just stuck in my head and so I I'd always heard the song and like elevators or in doctor's offices and stuff, I never put two and two together. And then I watched the movie. I'm like, oh, now I at least have you know some background on the song.
Speaker 1:I, I mean Chuck, came onto my radar when I was probably when I was in my early teens, and just because he had crossed over to top 40 and he had a couple of tunes. I think I don't remember if the first one was feel so good or not, but I remember just had a really cool groove to it, you know, and I just dug, I dug what, what he was doing, and and then I also think it was around 1980. Well, it had to be 1980. He, uh, he was commissioned to write a tune for the, uh, for the Olympics, the 1980 Olympics, and that both of those, uh, you know, both those I don't remember. I think he had two or three, you know, top 40 hits and and then that was in the early eighties and then you kind of never really, if you were not into the, into the jazz world, you kind of never really heard from Chuck again. But then apparently he had a resurgence on King of the Hill, the, the animated series. I guess he had a. He had a recurring, he had a recurring role on there on King of the Hill, the animated series. I guess he had a recurring role on there and I mean, I know the show, I know King of the Hill. I haven't watched a lot of it so I couldn't even tell you if I've seen an episode featuring Chuck, but I know he was big time.
Speaker 1:And when I did hear the news yesterday it was like one of those things like oh man. Because, like I said, since my early teens I hadn't known or known of, whether it's actors, athletes, musicians, and especially for us, being the music nerds that we are, when they start passing it's like oh man, and I don't know. I don't really start thinking about my own mortality at that point, but it's just like another one. So anyway, but yeah, you know, look, rest in peace to Chuck. He was certainly a legend in the jazz world, but the next one I wanted to hit on I think this one actually got announced yesterday too. I think this one actually got announced yesterday too was George Coymans, the guitarist and one of the chief songwriters for the Dutch band Golden Earring.
Speaker 2:Yes, I loved Radar Love.
Speaker 1:Yes, not a huge band in the United States. As a matter of fact, golden airing came onto my radar in 1983 with their second top 40 hit and that was twilight zone. Okay, and I don't even know that one. Oh, no, you'll know it. Okay, if you hear it, you'll know it. Yeah, you'll be. Oh, yeah, okay, I know that song, but it was a pretty big song, I mean at the time, compared to their first top 40 hit, radar Love, which was 10 years earlier. I don't know what chart position that one hit, but Twilight Zone, that was a top 10 hit in the United States and it was a pretty big song and a really good song too.
Speaker 1:And I had no idea that Golden Earring had been around for nearly 20 years at that point. These guys were like ancient at that point. But that was a good song and the one thing it's I don't know kind of funny is you take their two top 40 hits in the United States and they're both like epic songs or like seven, eight minute songs both of them, yes, unless you're listening to top 40 radio and then they cut it down to like three minutes for each one of those songs. But uh, yeah, good stuff from from from golden earring, and, unfortunately, I think georgie was diagnosed, like five years ago, with als and I think that's probably what ended up. You know, um, you know, getting to him, um, you know, five years later, you know, but I think he was like 77 years old. So, you know, not a bad run. But I know, as soon as, as soon as they announced, uh, that he had als, the, the band itself, that's it. All right, we're done.
Speaker 1:So they called it quits, commendable, they were big time in Europe, they were pretty big time. So, anyway, all right. Now see, because I'm the older of the two of us not that I could speak in depth on Chuck or Golden Earring, but I could speak a little bit more on them we're going to kind of get more into Shannon's wheelhouse here and a little bit for me, but more so for for Shannon. And uh, yesterday, sad, sad, sad news If you are a wrestling fan, uh, you know, pro wrestling fan at all and that was Hulk Hogan passing away at 71 years old. So young, yeah, so young.
Speaker 2:Well, I think all the guys that passed away were in their seventies. So it's like a little club they put together. Yeah, I guess. So Right, yeah, but what?
Speaker 1:do you? Yes, so right, yeah, but what do you? I mean, we talked earlier and you are. You know you were a wrestling fan. You said you kind of stepped away a little bit, but you've kind of gotten back into it recently. And what are your, you know? Like, when did Hulk Hogan come on your radar and what are your remembrances of him?
Speaker 2:Well, I did not see the first wrestlemania too much later. So I mean rocky three with thunder lips was my introduction into him.
Speaker 1:That was so good, that was so good. Ball. When he yells at rocky meatball, I want to break you in half.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna break you in two all the show girls, the big feather in the hat, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, great. Was he wearing a big old feather boa too? Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:I mean it was just beautiful and that I've actually read books on Hulk Hogan from that time period. Yeah, and he had been fired by the WWF at that point, Really Because he wanted to go do Rocky III. Oh, okay, at that point, really, because he wanted to go do rocky three, oh, and so he went and did rocky three and they saw the reaction and the owner saw dollar sign, dollar signs, and brought him back and then made him world champion because of it vince mcmahon yeah, vincent k, yeah, yeah, vincent K, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:He, um, I mean Hogan in the rock music world was actually well known in the eighties because of the rock and roll connection. He had a cartoon called the rock and roll uh connection, I believe was Cindy Lauper, and they would have guests in there. Mr T was always on it, yeah, yeah. Then when in the wrestling even you know they brought out, I mean ozzy osbourne was in wrestlemania 2 what's that?
Speaker 2:really, yeah, yeah, wow. He's in wrestlemania 2 as a special guest. They always brought out guests. The first wrestlemania, I think, was cindy lopper and uh liberace I believe that was, I think first.
Speaker 1:Wrestlemania was like 1984, I believe, yeah, I think that was the one at the Pontiac Silverdome. No, that was three. Oh, really, that was three, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:The first one was Madison Square Garden oh, okay, Yep. And the second one was in three spots, simulcast three different venues at once.
Speaker 1:And they never did that again because it was so hard. I think I remember hearing Hulk talk about that, something like that yeah, yeah, yeah, cause, and they were all pay-per-view, weren't they?
Speaker 2:The first one was not a pay-per-view, because it wasn't really a thing, right it was. Because it wasn't really a thing, right it was. They would sell out viewing places that had special license to carry it, not theaters but like halls and stuff and they would sell out places with big screens, yeah, and people would have to gather. And then Vincent McMahon, you know, jumped on it and when he saw other wrestling promoters doing pay-per-view he did it better.
Speaker 1:We could do a special on WrestleMania guest stars anyway, because WrestleMania 3, alice Cooper was in it a pretty big rock connection with, with, with professional wrestling, or, or you know, the, the, the WWF, or the WWE as it's known now, or even even WCW, which which that was a thing for a while and got got swallowed up by the WWE.
Speaker 2:Hogan. Hogan was a big part of WCW's rise and fall. When he right, I mean look my opinion and I I mean Hogan was a big part of WCW's rise and fall Right.
Speaker 1:I mean, look my opinion and I can speak a little bit on Hulk Hogan, just because I was around and he first came on my radar on Rocky III and I'm a teenager, I'm a junior in high school, I'm sorry. I was going into my senior year in high school and I went to go see Rocky III and I'm seeing this guy that's like 6'7", he's about 300 over Rocky.
Speaker 1:It was. But look, I know he was tall and he was big, but you know he had to be standing on like an apple crate just to give that effect that he was even so much bigger because the thing is, sylvester Stallone's actually short.
Speaker 1:Well, he's, yeah, he's not very tall, I think think he's about 5, 10 maybe. Yeah, and that's maybe if he stands on his tiptoes, I don't know. But uh, but uh, but that that was just such an image, you know. And then just to see that scene, it was so great and and I think to what you're saying, really that's probably you know, vince was like, oh, we got to get this guy back and and look, if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, wwf would not be what it is. He was.
Speaker 1:I mean, he's not only just so synonymous with professional wrestling, with WWF, with WWE, with whatever professional wrestling period. He was the. He was really kind of like I I mean, there was professional wrestling way before then. Andre the giant was like one of the only guys I even knew of before wwf happened, because you know, everybody had their own regional wrestling and different cities and towns and all that kind of stuff. But I, I watched it a little bit on local television when I was much smaller, but but then Hulk Hogan, you know, comes on the scene and just things explode and from, from pay-per-views and from being on television, you know, whatever, like once a month or something like that, they had some big wrestling thing going into toys and just everything else. It was just bananas, and I just honestly just think it okay. Yes, could Vince McMahon do a great marketing job? Sure, but you know what, if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, I just oh, you had to have somebody to sell, and not only that, but Hulk Hogan could sell himself too, you know so-.
Speaker 2:He had TV shows. He had movies, like you said, dolls, video games. He was on two rock albums. They were wrestling albums. You had WrestleMania the album no, it was the wrestling album. Then you had Piledriver, the wrestling album too. Okay, and he was on both of those and his face is front and center on those albums. So when I went and bought those, that's what I looked for. You saw Hogan you knew.
Speaker 1:That's it. Give me that. Yeah, well, he was such an enormous figure. Figure and not just in stature, but but just an enormous figure in his personality and and and and and, just in the way that he did market himself but but also, um, he transcended wrestling. Oh yeah, like you said, he did television shows, he did movies, he was on a couple of albums. Just you know, he had his own reality show at one point too.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Right, I think I watched a few episodes because there was a lot of. There was a lot of cool music related stuff on bh1 or bh1 classic whatever it was first wife, I believe.
Speaker 2:I think you're right on that one because his second wife's guy I think her name is is uh, quite a bit younger than him, yeah, um, so she may not have been alive when he was wrestling at first but just uh, just to you know, and, and you know, uh never had I shouldn't say never, but but early on did not have a very good relationship with his father.
Speaker 1:Oh, and his father completely disapproved of what he was doing when it came to wrestling, cause he went to college at, uh, florida or Florida state or something somewhere in Florida, I can't remember exactly which, which university it was. And he was, he was majoring in accounting. Okay, can you, can you imagine a guy like six foot seven, six foot eight, 300 pounds, you know, sitting behind a desk wanting to do your taxes or something like that? I mean, come on, really, yeah, that guy, seriously, but, but, but, um, but um, he, uh, he knew he wanted something different and he went into wrestling. Father didn't approve of it and I think it was um. When he won the title, he wrestled the iron chic. I think that was 84. Yeah, and it might've been the first time he won the title, cause he was like I don't know, like six times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you, you know it was. It was the sheik was the first person that he beat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and what's crazy is the iron sheik was like really, um, he was like he was like a security guy for the shah of iran back in the in the 70s so he was like a real dude, you know he was a former olympic wrestler.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he has like medals and everything so when, when, uh, when, hulk, uh, when he was, you know, uh, in preparation for that match, he, he had his parents attend, he got him tickets, whatever, and and and and had him there, um, watching the match. And it wasn't until after the match and he, he won, that his, his dad had come up to him and said you know what, I kind of understand what it is you're doing now and I get it and I'm really proud of you and it was, you know, it was at that point, you know, but up to then it was kind of a really a rocky relationship with his father, so, but, uh, bother, so but uh, he had some stuff in the news too.
Speaker 2:Back in the nineties he was in. He helped expose the business from the the. We've got to believe, you know, we've got to believe everything is real. He brought that forefront and let people know. Well, it is real. But we have a script. Uh predetermined a little bit. And then the steroid trials he went through that. He was, he was the key witness against the wwf and vincent k mcmahon. But then, because I've watched documentaries on this where he actually changed his mind on the stand and went against, uh, the prosecution and yeah, that's how he supposedly got back in the good graces of WWFE, whatever you want to call it, but yeah, yeah, you know, just, I mean figuratively and literally, just a larger than life figure and it's.
Speaker 1:It's kind of a shame. Um, another one of those people has been around almost all my life you know, and so just another, absolutely absolutely Just another guy, just you know gone to, gone too soon and um, but Just you know gone too soon, and but you know he died as a Christian man and so I, you know, good for him.
Speaker 2:One thing on Hogan before I forget. Yeah, Rick Derringer did two of his ring entrances like wrote them. I think I heard something about that. He used to be really big in wrestling, writing music for wrestlers back in the 80s.
Speaker 1:I think I heard something about that around the time Rick Derringer passed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably I think that came to light.
Speaker 1:That was just a few months ago Was that June? It was a month six weeks ago, something like that yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know. A month six weeks ago, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another. You know another, really, if you think about it. Another legend in music who really had one hit song but wrote and played for just oodles of people.
Speaker 2:Oh, if you play Hulk Hogan's Real American, oodles of people. Oh, if you play hulk hogan's real american, which was what he came to the ring with during his whole first run as champion, yeah, anybody from the era that watched him would know it. They wouldn't necessarily know rick derringer wrote, sang, it did the whole nine yards, yeah, but I mean, yeah, I mean it was. And then when he went to wcw, rick derringer was brought in to write his new patriotic song, because at the time, you know, we just came out of desert storm and was looking at um right other stuff on the horizons and they were trying to think, should we let hogan revisit the, the evil foreigner angles and stuff? And they end up not doing that. But they kept the music and and he kept that until he changed his music to voodoo child by uh, hendrix.
Speaker 1:Okay, in the mid 90s when, when, when, hulk, and we'll wrap this up because we'll, we'll get into, we'll get into it, because I know you're just going to go on for days.
Speaker 2:I'm a wrestling nerd too. I apologize.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I mean, you're going to go on for days when we get to our next celebrity. But when Hulk went to WCW, he couldn't take Hulk with him. That's when he became Hollywood Hogan, right, no, he?
Speaker 2:took Hulk Hogan to WCW.
Speaker 1:Why did he change to Hollywood Hogan and remember he colored his mustache black or his beard black, whatever, something?
Speaker 2:like that. I don't know how much terminology you know about wrestling. I don't know how much terminology you know about wrestling yeah, I don't know, but there's two terms or three, two, yeah, I can't count. One and one equals three. Living color, who also performed at WrestleMania this year, by the way. Living color did.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I heard something about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:But anyway, hogan was, when he first became a wrestler was what was known as a heel, which are bad guys, yeah. And he became champion a few months before he became what's called a baby face a good guy. Okay, that was wrestling terminology. When you switch from one to the other, you have to change a lot of things. You change your music, you change your appearance.
Speaker 2:When hogan was originally known as terry boulder, before he was hulk hogan, right, his, his chest hair was cut in a mushroom cloud, very hokey, very terrible. He was embarrassed of the pictures, but it was. It was a mushroom cloud, very hokey, very terrible. He was embarrassed of the pictures, but it was. It was a mushroom cloud of chest hair. And so when he came to the back to WWF, they're like no, we need you clean shaven, we need you bright. So they want to make sure his hair was nice and blonde and, uh, the do rag to cover up you know the unsightly baldness, because, goodness knows, you got to portray, you know, healthy individual. And he started the prayers, vitamins, regiments and talking about it.
Speaker 2:When he became Hollywood Hogan, he wanted to be anti-fan. He wanted to be anti-fan, he wanted to be anti-establishment. He broke all the rules, which was 100, was a 180 from american hulk hogan, who was like never broke a rule unless it was absolutely, you know, justified, and it was just his way. I mean, he painted his mustache with black stuff and, yeah, he spray painted his championship belt, which was sacrilege because those things at the time cost $12,000. Holy cow. And he spray painted one like live on the air. And the books I've read are like the people in the back going, oh my God. Well, we got to. Let him keep it for a while now, or at least people in his stable keep it, because it's got NWO on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's why he changed Okay, right on. Um, all right, you ready to move on?
Speaker 2:with a deep breath and a sigh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and probably a lot of sadness too. And, and this one was uh, this one came through on Tuesday morning. Um, it was announced that at the uh age of 76, ozzy Osbourne passed away. And, um, I remember well, it was only Tuesday, so of course I remember where I was, but it was, uh, I was listening to, I was listening to a serious XM. It was, um, it was probably 20 minutes before Eddie show was going to, was going to start. So I'm like, oh, no way, ozzie passed away and I thought, okay, well, eddie's coming on 20 minutes and obviously the whole show is going to be nothing but Ozzie. And then, when the show starts, come to find out that Eddie's out of town or he's, you know, making his way west to Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:And so you would have thought they'd preempted and had his producer come in and go. Breaking news, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, exactly, oh, breaking news. Now back to our regular, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly news. Now back to our regular you know, yeah, exactly so. So we had to wait a day to get eddie's perspective on it. But you know, um, it was just one of those things. I'll give my kind of perspective, because you're gonna have so much more to talk about on this than I am and, uh, that's why I wanted. So I just thought to myself, okay, at least Ozzy got to perform one last time with the original lineup of Black Sabbath.
Speaker 1:He actually, I mean back in 92, he was retiring, it was no More Tours, that was the tour, the no More Tours tour, and I think that evolved into Oz Fest instead of the tours, so to speak. But it was just, you know, and just like with so many other artists and bands that we, like you know that, say goodbye. They kind of say goodbye for a little bit and they're right back in it. But but you know, for I guess it was for probably the last five or six years Ozzy was, he had this tour scheduled, uh, or planned, with, uh, judas Priest opening, and it kept getting postponed because Ozzy had surgery here, he had this there, a lot of health issues the last five, six years and Ozzy's had health issues in the past, you know, probably past 20 years, but nothing that kept him from the stage, nothing that kept him from performing, but this definitely was keeping him down. And then, of course, was it a couple of years ago it was announced that he was suffering from Parkinson's disease, and so you know, but he kept saying, oh, I'm going to come back, I'm going to be back, I'm going to be back. And then it just never happened and you really kind of saw the writing on the wall.
Speaker 1:But then early this year, it was probably January, february, when they made the announcement. You know, back to the beginning, one time, one time only. It's going to be in Birmingham, england, rightfully so with the original members of Black Sabbath, and it was going to be. It was supposed to be really a tribute to the original lineup of Black Sabbath and it kind of ended up being a farewell to Ozzy really. But from Ozzy's perspective, I kept hearing that he was like I got to play with Bill Ward one last time, we're doing this for Bill, and so I thought that was really nice on Ozzy's part too, and he finally got to do it. You know, he got to go out the way he wanted to, performing one final time for his fans, for all the other artists that were there paying tribute to not only him but to black Sabbath, and he got to perform with his guys one last time, and I think that was a really, just a really um, you couldn't go out any other way, sure.
Speaker 2:I was really worried that he was even going to be able to do it, cause you, you know, you hear the rumor mill they were spouting Aussies canceling again because was it not, was it desert trip? Whatever it was? Uh, yeah, and 2023, judas priest took his spot. Yep, um, cause four, three, four months before you know, he had to cancel just for those reasons and everybody's like, oh man, it's happening again. You know, ozzy once played with a glass in his eye. He once performed with broken ribs on stage for this to keep him away from the stage. Oh, my goodness gracious, you know this is the end and you know, little did we know when it was going to come so soon after his last performance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and at the time that we're recording this episode too, I don't think it's still been revealed what the actual cause of death was.
Speaker 2:so no, um, him or hogan. I think hogan was just cardiac arrest. Ozzy, I think they're just so far. It's just a rapid parkinson's, because it can hit you rapidly and deteriorate you fairly quickly.
Speaker 1:And that's possible, but when did you know you're a huge Black Sabbath fan and you are a huge Ozzy Solo? Fan and you are a huge Ozzy solo fan and obviously we're a little bit different in age there's about 10 years difference between the two of us but when did Black Sabbath come on?
Speaker 2:your radar. Well, ozzy came on my radar first. Okay, as a solo artist. Yeah, yeah, my brother, who introduced me to hard rock and heavy metal, brought home bark at the moon.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, so not even blizzard of Oz.
Speaker 2:No, it was not the first, not the first three, well, two albums. And there was live albums after that speak, speak after that, I think speak, speak.
Speaker 1:I think. Yeah, speak of the Devil was the one after Diary.
Speaker 2:Brad Gillis, yes, yeah, yeah, and Bark at the Moon. And I was like, wow, I was eight, nine when that came out and he brought it home. There was like eight years difference between me and my brother. He's a little bit older and he was listening to it all the time when my parents went around and I would howl. I mean we didn't have headphones, we didn't, we had just the old, the old credenza that you flipped up and put records on or you pushed an eight track in and we had a little tape deck and he brought home the tape and we wore it out. Love, bark at the Moon that was my introduction. I mean I didn't know who Randy Rhodes was until way after that. Wow, what's really crazy. Black Sabbath I didn't realize Ozzy was in Black Sabbath at first when I first heard him, because the first artist I heard with them was Tony Martin.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, and I went back yeah, yeah, it's like well, but the timeline is everything. Everybody comes in at a different point in in a in a band's chronology. You know, I mean you're coming in on Ozzy's third studio album. You know you're coming in on on Tony, on Black Sabbath with with Tony Martin, which was like after Ian Gillen, after Glenn Hughes and, you know, certainly after Dio.
Speaker 2:To bring it back. To bring it back a little bit. Yeah, the first time I heard an Iron or not Iron, a Black Sabbath song, was in wrestling Jeez.
Speaker 1:Going to bring it back around to our previous conversation. Right, right right.
Speaker 2:Iron man was the ring entrance for the road warriors.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:And it was funny they would play. You know, by the time they got Ozzy had Iron man out over the loudspeakers. The road warriors were in the ring and had their opponents dead being pinned. The song didn't even get to finish its intro and it was just hilarious and that for the longest time I was like that's really a weird way, you know, but it sounded so dark and sinister and yeah, it wasn't. Till years later I'm like, oh, that was ozzy and black sabbath and I started going, like I said, going back, and I and I still haven't listened to the. Ian gillen was that forbidden? I'm trying to remember which one again, born again.
Speaker 2:The one with the little devil baby on the cover yes, yes, yes, yeah, forbidden. I've not heard either, but yeah, so, yeah, that was my intro was Bark at the Moon. Okay, I remember my brother being shattered because my parents wouldn't let him go.
Speaker 2:Oh, to see him on the tour, yeah go, oh to, to see him on the tour. Yeah, he, he was uh playing knoxville, tennessee, about an hour and a half hour, hour and a half away from us at thompson bowling, um, and I don't remember who was opening for him then, I think, on that tour and it's only because it's just what I keep hearing.
Speaker 1:Maybe no, I think, on the bark of the moon tour I I think it was Motley Crue, motley Crue, I think the crew was opening up that tour.
Speaker 2:Okay, I knew they did one of the early ones and then Metallica did one of the early ones as well, which blew me away that Motley even Nikki Sixx not showing up at the back to the beginning kind of threw me for a loop. But've many people have said you can't invite everybody. Yeah, that's exactly right, people are throwing stones trying to figure out who was thrown off the tour. I don't care, your Rolodex only goes so far. You know, Daytoness, you can go, and not only that it was.
Speaker 1:Look, it was eight hours already. That's an endurance. That's an endurance test in itself, and know it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if there's a revolving stage or not. You can still only get so many people on there, so right and I have yet to see all of it.
Speaker 2:I've seen a few youtube clips here and there I haven't seen any of it. I've been interested in it, but I haven't just haven't seen any of it there's definitely a couple of standout performances um the young blood that everybody's talking about yeah, I keep hearing about that one. I actually knew him a little bit before this. It was kind of shocking that he showed up, because that is not his scene at all. Really he is not rock at all.
Speaker 2:Um, he does like an emo kind of music okay yeah, yeah and not that I was a fan of it, but we watched a tv show 13 reasons why and it had multiple seasons of it and he was on the soundtracks for some of that. Okay, very, very dark show and almost like they put his music where it was depressing in the show. But if you hear him sing changes it's great. It's great and everybody on stage did a great job. And they actually leave him at the end of the song to sing out with the crowd the ending of it he did so well. Um then, another standout. I haven't watched the Steven Tyler stuff, even though I've heard that's great. I was a little bit disappointed that Tyler didn't do any Ozzy or Sabbath. I mean they could have fit something in there for Steven Right. I understand the contrast of styles and that he's an icon, yeah, but if you're there to pay tribute, why not?
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, but if you're there to pay tribute, why not? You know, right? I mean, even an icon like sammy hagar still performed, um, um, I don't even remember what it was he performed, but he performed, I think, something to his, and he performed a. Was it black sabbath song or was it a?
Speaker 2:I don't even remember if it was an aussie song I have not watched it, but I've read that he botched.
Speaker 1:The lyrics is all yes, that I didn't hear. Oh, it was um cute. It wasn't flying high again was it no no crap, but yeah, I did hear that he kind of yeah, he kind of messed up the lyrics. Yeah, live music and yeah, better than being on tape, right, absolutely, but, uh, but it, yeah, but what, that's right, I think it was an aussie song. Yeah, um, anyway, yeah, I just haven't seen any of the clips, but um, I want to see the uh, professionally shot version of it.
Speaker 2:So if it ever comes out as a box set or some kind of stream that you could get, I would probably get it just for prosperity, because I have several of their DVDs. I have the Dio's Radio City Music Hall.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, that was the Heaven and Hell era. Right, I mean not the album itself, but the band.
Speaker 2:Yes, Eddie Trunk actually hosted. I've got that on DVD. I've got the end, which was supposed to be the last black Sabbath concert. Um, then I've got uh, uh, gathering in their masses which was the the tour of that time for their album 13. Okay, um, so, yeah, I've, I've got several of those and, yeah, as hard as it was to see ozzy and his throne, it was, it was a throne, but they they're fan videos, which is I'm starting to jump on board the whole don't take your cell phone thing, because all that shot footage is ruining some of the mystique for me. Oh, really, the sound quality is atrocious. Yeah, yeah, yeah, poor, um, yeah, there's several videos where they show, where they bring ozzy out and they dress up his chair as the throne. So I'm like, oh man, I wish I hadn't seen that part, you know, and the poor guy went off his medications just to show his dedication.
Speaker 2:How tough he was yeah, that's what I want his medications to do this so he wouldn't be subdued. And during his performance, you see, you see his flinches and and uh little spasms or jerks or whatever, and the man poured his heart out. Even if he was list uh playing to a tape, I doubt, because I didn't see any of the videos where you could see him lip syncing, but he did keep the microphone close to his mouth.
Speaker 1:You know from everything I've heard and I and I do believe it because there there's, I don't know, there's a guy that does a lot of vocal comparisons and that kind of stuff and I guess he's really good at this stuff, he's like an engineer or whatever but from everything I've heard that he was actually singing live. It didn't. I mean not that it sounded bad, but where. And not me, being a musician, I couldn't give you notes and scales and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But instead of being at this pitch here, he was down-tuned a little bit and maybe he was off a little bit on a couple notes here and there which, look, forget about the Parkinson's. The guy's 76 years old anyway. So trying to sing at 76, like you did in nine, you know, when you were 46 or 36, you know is is just going to be completely different and had not performed in years.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's true Because we know that. I think it was last year he did something with Tony Iommi in England. It was just the two of them, it was a soccer game or something like that and that was completely like tape. But yeah, from everything that I've heard, no, it was completely live. And then what they did is they kind of if you bought the pay-per-view it was a two-hour delay and which actually gave sound guys or whatever. It gave them a couple hours to sweeten it up a little bit, but not a lot. There wasn't a lot that they had that they had to tweak.
Speaker 1:So good on ozzy for that, because if you're a huge fan like you or anybody else out there like you, then you know, over the last 20 years 25 years Ozzy has struggled mightily live. He's had good nights and bad nights and there's been a lot of stuff going on. So look for everything that he's been through or he was going through and had been through to sing. I think it was a total of nine songs. Nine songs, yeah, total nine songs between the Ozzy set and the Black Sabbath set. Thumbs up to Ozzy, thumbs up to Ozzy. It's all I can say.
Speaker 2:Tony Iommi said they wanted to play seven to eight songs they had picked out and because of curfew they dialed it back that's right or handed it to more.
Speaker 1:I think he said they cut two songs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I can't remember the other song, yeah it was.
Speaker 1:It was Gypsy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and was it the Wizard? Oh, I couldn't imagine Ozzy even attempting the Wizard.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, that's true, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's pretty crazy, it was.
Speaker 2:Maybe Black Sabbath.
Speaker 1:It might have been, yeah, but I do remember him saying gypsies wear boots. Yeah, Fairies wear boots. I mean fairies. Yeah, fairies, You're fine.
Speaker 2:But yeah, for the non-black sabbath fan, you know. So whatever sorry people were going, I've got this going up.
Speaker 1:What's the matter with you, maynard? But uh, you know. So, yeah, all I can say is good on Ozzy. You know he did a fabulous job. So you started with Bark at the Moon. When did you go back, and how far did you go? Did you go back to Blizzard of Oz, or did you only go back, you know?
Speaker 2:or one album to either speak of the devil, devil or a diary of a madman well, at my age at the time I was kind of at the whim of my brother's musical taste, okay, and whatever he brought home, yeah, and of course he was strapped by his budget of being a teenager at the time weren't we all yeah, and then there was my parents.
Speaker 2:We had to, you know, sneak around them because they were, you know, they, uh, they had both kinds of music in the house country and western. You didn't have hard rock, god bless. You know heavy metal. But um, I did, when I started high school, go back to blizzard and diary because somebody heard that I had just heard bark okay, forward okay because when I was in high school, no more tears had been out or came out after.
Speaker 2:Well, that was when I was in mid high school. Um, no rest for the wicked came out, and I love that album that's like 90s, isn't it? That's like it's late, no rest it that's like it's late no rest. I believe was late eighties, no more tears was early nineties.
Speaker 1:Bark of the moon. Ultimate sin, Then, then was it?
Speaker 2:Somehow I skipped ultimate sin until way later. I went way back Then.
Speaker 1:I think, then, I think it was no rest for the for the wicked right. It was after that.
Speaker 2:And then was after that, and then was it osmosis after that, something like that no rest for the wicked, then no more tears. Oh, no more tears was his comeback album because it had perry mason on it, which was a big hit for him at the time which is a yeah, it's a dynamite song yeah that's a dynamite song. I've got most of his um uh, solo stuff, except for his last, like two or three albums, didn't didn't, um, didn't Zach write that one.
Speaker 1:He wrote uh, perry Mason.
Speaker 2:I would have to look at the liner notes, but probably cause Zach did a. Zach was really taking the reins at certain points. Yeah, Um, Zach was. I mean, if you hear Zach's interviews on Ozzy, Ozzy was like a second father to him, exactly. I mean they had that relationship.
Speaker 1:He called, he called ozzy. Uh, he didn't call him, he didn't call him dad. I think he called him father, father oz or something like that, and called it sharing moms. Yes, yes, he did. Yeah, no, he was very, very no, he was very, very close with with Osbournes, very, very close with them and, uh, very grateful to everything that you know that you know they they had given him, uh, I mean, they gave him his shot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they took him out of the clubs playing to 13 people. I, he said in jersey yeah to stadiums. Yeah, I mean, you can't ask for more than that when he was jeff wyland yes, jeff wyland. Yeah, he was long blonde flowing hair much in that scene, uh, and then, of course, beefed up into this manhunter looking, oh my god I mean, if he shaved his beard he might look pretty.
Speaker 1:He might look a lot like hulk hogan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, he could look like he could have went to the ring at some point. Exactly, absolutely, and that's one thing I do want to talk about ozzy um yeah, his and sharon's knack for finding talent, beautiful musicians over the years not, I mean, some people get lucky to find one. You're right, ozzy found probably a dozen.
Speaker 1:Well, let me see. Well, you know, I I'm not sure if you're aware of this and I don't know if the, the listeners and the and the and the viewers at home are aware of this, but Dana Strum from Slaughter is the one who introduced Randy Rhodes to Ozzy Osbourne.
Speaker 2:I heard that interview when he was on one of the cruises. Yeah, he talked about it, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah and um, but I mean so he brought Randy to Ozzie, and and then, after Randy had had had died, then of course comes Brad Gillis.
Speaker 2:Uh it was, uh, actually it was um Bernie.
Speaker 1:Bernie Torme filled in for a few shows and then they got Brad Gill. That was like two weeks and then brad gillis came aboard and filled that gap, uh until, um uh, jakey lee came into but I mean, come on, you've got randy rhodes.
Speaker 2:If you want to count brad gillis, we can count brad gillis, oh yeah, absolutely well, yeah without brad gillis there's no right night ranger oh, I mean, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:And then you've got Jakey Lee, then you've got Zach Zach Wild, then you've got Joe Holmes. So just phenomenal guitar player after phenomenal guitar player, after phenomenal guitar player, and that's five guitarists, yeah, bassist.
Speaker 2:Well, think of this, tony iomi, you have to add a sixth one in there that's true.
Speaker 1:He did kind of come, come back and do this. If you read, uh, tony and geezer's autobiographies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, their band earth was dying, they couldn't keep a singer, they were drawing nobody. And one of the guys just found ozzy out on the street kind of smoking a cigarette and he's like, yeah, man, for a pint I'll come in and sing and whatever. And and he just got there and just ad lib some stuff and they're like we gotta get this guy some lyrics, you know and see what's going to go from there and it kind of took off. Um, but bassist, you know, geezer Butler, bob Daisley, yep, um.
Speaker 1:Sarzo, rudy Sarzo, yeah, uh, um, uh, dang it. Trujillo, robert Trujillo, that's what I was thinking, robert.
Speaker 2:Trujillo. He told me now that Ash is a suicidal tendencies Because that's where Trujillo started, right and Mike Inez.
Speaker 1:Yes, mike Inez, and then the drummers Right from Alice in Chains, and then the drummers Alice right from Alice in Chains, and then the drummers too, castillo Aldrich.
Speaker 2:Tommy.
Speaker 1:Aldrich, randy Castillo, yeah, dean Castronovo from Journey, I don't think he. I don't know if he recorded anything with Ozzy, but he, he toured with Ozzy Bill Ward and, of course, honestly, look, the guy who started it all, lee Kerslake. And Lee Kerslake just was an absolute phenomenal drummer from one of my all-time favorite bands, uriah Heep, and it was so funny that you know, and we won't make this Uriah Heep, so I'll just say this we're going to get right back to Ozzy. You know, and we won't make this Uriah Heep, so I'll just say this we're going to get right back to Ozzy. But you know, lee was in Uriah Heep until 1979-1980 and he left due to management and joins up with with Ozzy, him and him and him and Daisley come in pretty much at the same time and where Daisley wrote a lot of the lyrics.
Speaker 1:You know, lee also did a lot of co-writing, but not so much on the lyric side. I mean, we all know Daisley wrote everything. But when both Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake were unceremoniously dismissed from the band, were unceremoniously dismissed from the band, what did they do? They went back to Uriah Heep. Well, daisley wasn't going back, but Curse Lake brought Daisley to Uriah Heep when they recorded their album in 82, abominog, so it was kind of funny that they were the rhythm section for Uriah Heep after that.
Speaker 2:But Daisley continued to write off and on for a little while longer, for Ozzy as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he came back to the banks. I think he was back for Ultimate Sin and on. I think he was on for a couple.
Speaker 2:Geezer was on for no Rest or for no More Tears, I can't remember which one. Geezer actually came into the Ozzy band for a short time. Those albums, and then of course Ozzy came back to Sabbath early 90s and made the head-scratching deal I give credit to Sharon, for Black Sabbath could only perform under that name with Ozzy, yeah, which is what led to Heaven and Hell with Dio later. That's right. I still consider all the old Dio records Heaven and Hell now Okay, but that's how I keep them apart. I do the same thing with Van Halen. I always consider the Roth era a different band than Hagar and Sharon. I just don't give him a fair enough shake. Even though I love Extreme. I need to break down and listen to Van Halen 3 again someday. But back to Ozzy. I mean they got that great deal.
Speaker 2:They did Ozfest, like you brought up earlier, which was a killer endeavor. I mean that brought talk about new music that brought so many fans, so many bands together introduced them to. I mean I was just looking at my. I had the. I have two years of Oz fest on CD, okay, and the name of the bands that came out of that like slipknot. That's where they got their first real exposure um machine head. There's a lot of harder things um. They even brought back a returning iron maiden had just reading they did.
Speaker 1:They did one oz fest, didn't they? Yeah, the Maiden got fired from it. Yeah, that's what I, that's what I thought I remembered here Now did. Obviously, white zombie was around from the late 80s but did, did Rob zombie Kind of get? Was he kind Of brought to more prominence and a wider Audience through Ausfest?
Speaker 2:No, he was around well before ozfest. Okay, ntv brought him around, okay, okay, I just wasn't sure on that I know he did.
Speaker 1:I know he did at least one, maybe two, uh ozfests.
Speaker 2:So I just wasn't sure, but well, like, like a lot of people say, he's the king of the festival. He honestly is. Yeah, I mean, you look at, was it Boardwalk Rock? They gave him just days to replace Alice in Chains and Motley Crue, stepped right in and hadn't even been doing anything for the longest time. Another guy that's great at finding talent, but yeah, zombie had been around for an album. Then they came out with La Sixer, sisto Devil Music Volume 1, and hit big on MTV.
Speaker 1:Well, I know there was some tension between Rob and Ozzy and Sharon for a while because they kept stealing his musicians. He said something to the effect that he was tired of being the farm team for for ozzy's band exactly.
Speaker 2:And what's hilarious is, rob has no room to speak because when marilyn manson toured with white zombie, he stole john five from marilyn manson and, uh, I want to say even piggy okay, all right, and we're gonna get back on.
Speaker 1:We're gonna get back on.
Speaker 2:I'm a train wreck when it comes to white zombie. I am a zombie fanatic scene another episode.
Speaker 1:Hold on. Yeah, I, I think john five might have been on his way out anyway, because him and him and maryland were fighting on stage.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, come on yeah, so marilyn was so blitzed he couldn't remember the fights afterwards it might not.
Speaker 1:It might not have taken much to get john to get over to rob's side of the you know side anyway.
Speaker 2:So but he wasn't the only person he took. He he took I want to say piggy d later on and okay, somebody else, okay. Yeah, rob doesn't have a whole lot of room to speak.
Speaker 1:I mean, maybe Blasto might have came Kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, I guess.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but Ozzy I mean him and Sharon were geniuses at talent, either getting somebody to find it or find it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he always just had tremendous musicians around him, you know, surrounded by talent, and not to say that it was just the talent around him that made Ozzy what he was, because you know the thing is he takes a lot of hits, or had taken a lot of hits throughout his career on his voice.
Speaker 1:But when you go back to the Black Sabbath stuff and then you go back to and I'm not Honestly, look, I'm not familiar with probably more than half of Ozzy's catalog, okay, and in all transparency, people I'm, I could probably name you about 10, maybe, if I pushed it, 12 Ozzy solo songs, okay, but but I I know enough to at least kind of speak half intelligently on this and and have a good conversation with with Shannon, cause he'll fill in all the blanks, especially on those early records, and just his voice fit what was being written. And even though he wasn't a lyricist, it's always been said that he could come up with a good melody. So he could take the lyrics and he could twist them into a really good melody and boom, there you go, and what he did was phenomenal, into a really good melody. And boom, there you go, and what he did was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:It really, really was what when I read, uh geezer butler's autobiography last year, he would say pretty much that same thing. Ozzy would be humming a tune or coming up with a melody, right, tony was the musician, he played all the instruments and he would make the song. Was the musician, he played all the instruments and he would make the song. Geezer did the lyrics and so they had a, you know, a good triangle there. You know, uh to to come up with music and it was magical for at least the first four to five albums before you know the, the drugs and the really went off the rails really went off.
Speaker 2:The rails, I mean, some of the stories are just mind-blowing, but um, yeah, I mean, and even I watched, uh, motley Crue's movie, the dirt, oh, yeah, yeah have you seen it where they meet Ozzy on the poolside and he's snorting ants because he can't find nobody has any cocaine.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny. I heard that story told by I don't remember who it was in the band years ago, years ago. And then I bought the book when it had come out and each guy's got his own story of the band and you read about Ozzy snorting ants poolside as well, and I believe it was his own story of the band. And and you read about ozzy snorting ants poolside as well, you know, and I believe was on that bark of the moon tour and um, and then, of course, here comes the movie, probably gosh. That probably was five, six years after the book was written oh yeah and and boom.
Speaker 1:There it is. You know front and center. So there's got to be something to it, you know, because ozzy was known for doing a lot of crazy things, ozzy admitted to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was on a. Uh, we found the youtube clip last night we were. We've been just looking at some nostalgia stuff because of ozzy had passed in our family. We've been listening to a lot of everything the aussie sang yeah um, then we look for clips.
Speaker 2:One of them is him on a game show. Um, is it? Jimmy kimmel is hosting a young man show. Jimmy kimmel, yeah, okay, he's hosting it, and it's aussie versus a fan. You can find it on YouTube and they're asking questions about Ozzy's life to see who knows more. Yeah, and it was hilarious because the fan was like trying to beat Ozzy to the buzzer on like questions like what's your middle name, you know, and stuff like that. It was hilarious and one of the questions that Ozzy got right was what animal did Ozzy supposedly snort back in the 80s? And he goes I did ants, I did it, I admit it, finally, I did it it was just hilarious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know there was a morning show here on the local rock station for 25 years. Mark and brian and they had ozzy on a few times, uh, during the time when ozzy lived in la and um he was also the no, it was actually before. It was before the uh, the reality show this was like show either. This was like early. I never saw it either, but this was like early to mid-90s when they had him on, because I remember one time they had him on promoting the Osmosis record.
Speaker 2:That was his family man period. They called it.
Speaker 1:That was like 93, something like that, 93, 94, somewhere around there.
Speaker 2:And then they had pictures of him holding Little Jack on stage during his last performance for the no More Tears. Yeah, they had a bunch of him hosting holding little Jack on stage during his last performance for the no more tears.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were very so. They had him on a couple of times and he was always a kick in the pants because you know, and everybody knows, when Ozzie spoke, you know he would stutter a lot and that kind of stuff. But but I remember, I remember when he I think it might've been the first time he came in the studio and you could hear on the microphone him walking in the studio sitting getting ready to sit down on the microphone, but the headphones on all the jewelry that he's wearing it's just making all kinds of noise and they were talking about the cologne that he was wearing and how strong it was. And you know, and he was, you know, and uh, he was. You know, he was very interesting, it was.
Speaker 1:It was interesting to hear him in in an interview, be so different than everybody's perception of of him based on, you know, the persona that he created performing on stage. You know his years in black Sabbath, you know his years, obviously, as a solo artist, you know, and he's dubbed the Prince of darkness and all this kind of stuff. And just to hear him in an interview, totally, totally different, oh yeah, and it just it. It really made him much more human and much more of like, just like a regular guy. And uh, I do remember in one of the interviews uh, this was after Ozzy had gotten sober and you know it's no secret.
Speaker 1:I mean, ozzy tried just about every drug if not every drug known to man combined with alcohol, if not every drug known to man combined with alcohol. So he was talking about getting sober and I remember the guys asked him well, what was the hardest drug to give up? And he said the hardest thing ever to give up was tobacco. Was smoking, he's just said to cigarettes was the hardest thing ever to quit. Forget about all the drugs and alcohol, it was, it was, it was the cigarettes. I just was like whoa, I was blown away with that.
Speaker 2:I think geezer may have said the same thing in his book, cause he had a lot of excesses and he said drink and cigarettes, I think, was the hardest thing for him yeah, but uh, you know, um, ozzy was, uh, he was one of a kind and I'll tell you I, you know, after we talked earlier in the week about doing this together.
Speaker 1:And look, shannon, I can't thank you enough for doing this. Oh man, I forgot I had a banner right here. What a dummy I am. I think that's the right one.
Speaker 2:There it is did I get it right, I can't read it from here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 48 to 20, finally where we're, where we're getting closer to the end of the show. I put the banner up but, um, I, uh, I was trying to bone up a little bit on on ozzy and I've never, ever, listened to all of Blizzard of Oz and I've never listened to all of diary. Okay, um, I've never listened to a complete Ozzy album, let's put it that way. And, uh, I'm, I'm, honestly, I'm really interested in going to hear, going to listen to speak of the devil. Okay, because I hear that's a really, really cool recording because it's Ozzy just playing all the Sabbath stuff and, of course, he's doing it with the solo band.
Speaker 2:So, I'm really interested in that. There's stories behind that as well, if you hear and if you believe. What you hear but that was at his lowest point was speak of the devil after after randy had passed randy had passed and his excesses had gotten so bad because of such things. Um, I always wondered if that's why brad gillis had left. But then when you hear brad gillis interview, he's like no, I had my own band, yes, taking off, so that's why I stepped out.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the stories from that I've heard from interviews was during speak of the devil. They had to give Ozzy lyric sheets and sometimes feed him his lines and do takes for days just because he was struggling so much with depression and with in his excesses. Um, but he turned out a good album. I mean it wasn't bad I. I also like the randy rhodes tribute album. It's a.
Speaker 2:It's a raw live recording okay um of, uh, one of randy's few shows that he did with ozzy. Know they only did the two tours. Well, four and a half if you really want to count that. But if you ever want to sit down and listen to an album, I could see you doing no More Tears, Okay, Just because it's got. I mean, you're familiar with Mama. I'm Coming Home.
Speaker 1:Oh, and I was going to talk about that one.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I am familiar, go ahead yeah, the, the let me kill mr song, the aussie song. Yeah, um, and I mean it's radio friendly, it's got some hard rock in it, it's, uh, more melodic, but it's still aussie. I mean, at the time I was listening to it going. Man, I guess he is really hanging it up because he's dialed it back a notch. He's went from being over the top to, you know, not phoning it in, but just kind of, you know, playing his heart out.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's a great segue, because there's a guy here locally who does like. He does stuff on Instagram and he does stuff. He does live shows where he'll his name's Christian Hand. So I'm going to give him credit.
Speaker 1:He's a musician but he takes songs and he breaks them down track by track and he'll it always. He always starts with the rhythm section. He'll start with the drum track first and he's going to play the drum track and show you what the what the drum beat was and how it sounded. Then he's going to mix in the baseline or play the baseline, then play the two combined and then bring in the guitar. So on and so on and so on. And he came on Wednesday to a morning show that I listened to and broke down Mama, I'm Coming Home and he broke it down one track at a time and listening to anything, I've heard him do a bunch of stuff in the past and it it makes you listen to music completely different once you've heard a song, track by track by track you know and, um man, what an act.
Speaker 1:I mean just the layer there's. There's like two, two different layers of guitar, maybe three different layers of guitar on that song, and zach just kills it, knocks it out, you don't it? Just. And for somebody who is is not as familiar with the song, I mean, yes, of course I've heard it, probably, you know, a thousand times, but but not really just sat down and just like listened to it.
Speaker 1:Um, but, but to hear the different guitar tracks on it, from the acoustic guitar to not only the electric guitar, but then there's the crunchy electric guitar with the distortion on it and all this kind of thing, and then have it all be put together and the acoustic, the acoustic track on that is just it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous, that song, and and I think Bob Daisley was back in the band at that time too, I think so and his bass line on that, when you hear it by itself, I'd have to hear the whole song together to hear if the bass is up or if it's buried a little bit in the mix, but to hear the bass line alone, oh, it's tremendous, it's tremendous. That is really one terrific song.
Speaker 2:It really, really is. I loved it when it came out. It was a big departure from no Rest for the Wicked, which was a lot rawer. I guess you could say but Zach, really I don't know if he had a mentor or if he just really progressed that much or what, but he he did, he wailed on that. No more tears. There's the radio edit and then there's the long form. Okay, I refuse to listen to the radio edit anymore because it's just. It cuts out his guitar solo. Oh, really.
Speaker 2:He wails yeah, it's. He wails yeah, um, it's also got a breakdown, um. I think there's a record player in the background. A little bit, maybe something like that that could have been cut, but it's a really good song, Um, just a lot of good music on that album, it is. It is one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Not my favorite Aussie track. I almost put together a top 20 for this one.
Speaker 1:I was wondering if you would do that.
Speaker 2:I don't think I can fit it in in the time. We'd be here for another hour or so.
Speaker 1:Just listen to me blather on about, we can do top 20 Ozzy's later on too, if we need to. That's no big deal, it's all good.
Speaker 2:There's just so many good songs and he we haven't even touched on his duet with lita oh yeah, with lita ford yeah, yep, the first day I went and bought I got a cd player.
Speaker 2:I saved up for a boom box with a cd player in it. I went and got three cds. The first cd I bought was kisses revenge okay, just came out that day, I believe. Yep, uh, tesla's five-man acoustic band okay, good, five-minute acoustic jam, yeah, yeah. And lita ford's lita album. Those are my first three cds. I picked up lita's because I knew closed my eyes forever from mtv and it was in the, the little notch rack. It hadn't sold very well and it was like, okay, four or five bucks or something gotcha. But I enjoyed the hell out of it. I was kind of disappointed it didn't get be played it back to the beginning. But I understand there was politics involved in that one.
Speaker 1:But yeah, there, probably there might have been. I mean there's been a lot of people. It's a long black list, you know when it comes to the Osborne camp. But you know some, some bridges have been mended and some haven't, and you never know, but you know. But yeah, that was a first off, that was a huge song period. It, it, it, it, it.
Speaker 2:It made Ozzy that couples with first opt-in hit but it kind of made him more mainstream too.
Speaker 1:And and and and even more, radio friendly. I mean, it was a huge MTV hit. So it was a huge song for uh right, you're and you're right, it was a top 10 hit and it was a huge song for lita, you know but, uh, and I'm, I'm, I'm certain it was her biggest.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, um but maybe kiss me deadly, but have to be her top two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, but, um, you know, I, I like I said, I've been listening to. I listened to a blizzard of oz and um, I listened to a little bit of I didn't get all the way through diary yet, just because I ran out of time but but listening to randy rhodes and, just like I said, not being a musician but but knowing what his background was and then and then being more of um, you know, being older and knowing what I'm trying to listen for and listen to and that kind of stuff, uh, being a little more educated than I was, you know, years, years ago. You can really hear Randy's classical training and his, his and his influence and stuff and and where I mean there's, there's a couple of things on um and I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, but but just whether it's in a guitar solo or it's just in a riff that he's playing, where it's like this is almost like listening to Beethoven or Bach or something on guitar.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, well, a lot of heavy metals actually comes from classical. When you go back to the roots and look at it and read up on it uh, mr crowley, the song could have been instrumental, but you had to have ozzy in there because it was him. Um, and, and randy killed that song, and it did. It had a lot of uh, bells and whistles, you could say as well. But yeah, randy was fantastic.
Speaker 2:I actually listened to his Quiet Riot stuff oh really yeah, before he came to Ozzy Quiet Riot brought a like an album that was pre-Metal Health oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Released only in Japan, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it came on to streaming here so I was able to get it and then find a copy of it as well, and you heard it there. So I guess I could understand why Quiet Riot didn't take off, because they didn't have Ozzy. You know they have that shock factor. Yeah, you know they have that shock factor. Yeah, you know, we haven't even touched on ozzy biting the head off a bat on stage.
Speaker 2:The the pitchers with doves, the the the pissing on the alamo where he got 30 years um, causing riots accidentally as stage by clapping his hands and screaming come on and people running on stage thinking that he was welcoming them. I mean, he got his ribs broken in a stampede on the no More Tours. Okay, because of that, on stage A guy, supposedly bear, hugged him so hard that he cracked a rib and Ozzy had to finish the tour taped up and was still supposedly so medicated. We'll say that he was able to finish it out.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, yeah, he was a soldier even back then you know there's uh, well, okay, well, look, we're gonna, we're gonna bring it on home now we'll wrap it up. But you know, we really haven't even touched on the black Sabbath years with Ozzy, you know. So I mean that that's a, that, I mean that's a whole episode in itself, right there. I mean, we've just talked about Ozzy, the man which is, you know, just phenomenal personality for not phenomenal performer, um and uh, you know just, uh, um an, an icon in the hard rock community, you know, or heavy music community, heavy metal community, whatever you want to call it, you know, all that encompassed in into one. But um and um, you know, it's we're, we're here to pay tribute and say thank you to Ozzy for all all of his, uh, all his contributions to music and, um, you know, maybe we will, maybe we'll save those Ozzy years for another time and and just cover that too.
Speaker 2:We'll have to um, I might have to have my one or two of my kids come on for a cameo, because then they can. Then we can talk about what we talked about on the phone the other day about the uh black Sabbath and Aussie lullabies I had for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Oh, I'd love to look, I already look, I already saw the dog peeking, peeking into the, into the camera there. So look, that's all good stuff, man. You bring the whole family and I don't care, it's all good man.
Speaker 2:Here's. Here's a free trailer for that. My children yeah. Both have um Siri, not Siri uh Alexa as alarm clocks.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:They're, they're, uh, alarm clock. Music is crazy. Trained to wake welcome up every morning for school. So every morning they they hear all aboard and you know the whole, the whole intro and the music. Sometimes I walk into the room and they're still sleeping and the song's over and going on to something else.
Speaker 1:But um, that's what they wake up to every day is is ozzy crazy train and it's amazing that song not to go off on another tangent, that song obviously very uh, was not like a big old hit song whenever it first came out. Um, it was. You know, ozzy probably didn't have a real hit song until maybe even uh, um, what do you call it? Um, maybe no more tears or something like that you know later on. But but crazy train, crazy trains, his biggest song, gonna have most download, probably a billion downloads or something like that, but the biggest song, but primarily it. It really came to to to prominence and gained so much traction through through, through, uh, uh, all these sports teams you know playing it, you know football games or play guys, it was their walkup song with a they're walking up to a home plate or something like that, you know, and, uh, it's just, I mean it's, it's synonymous with sports.
Speaker 2:It's synonymous with, certainly with Ozzy, and it's just, it's it. That song in itself is like part of pop culture. It's, it's had a big, the song alone's had a big impact in my life. I mean, I've went to my local sports team is the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And every time a team takes possession they play the beginning of crazy train Train. Like I said, my kids listen to it on the alarms when they wake up. My wife danced with it with her bridesmaids at our wedding. Oh no, she didn't. She did. We actually chased people out of our wedding. That's a story for another time. With our music preferences at the time, it's just hilarious. I mean, and if you break we could.
Speaker 2:We could use an episode just to break down the lyrics, because I don't know if ozzy even knew some of the stuff he was singing about. One of the reasons the song was not accepted very well was because it was political and during the early re years, you know, we were trying to get away from some of the stuff he talked about. But again, that's for another day. But it was. It's a great song, it's what he I'm. I don't know if that's what he ended back to the beginning with or not. I just saw mama, I'm coming home.
Speaker 1:I think he finished the solo set with mama. I'm coming home yeah, that's what I hear, because they had people crying in the audience and everything.
Speaker 2:It was touching. But I've seen a few different versions of it, mostly fan footage, which was horrendous. But I saw one cleaned up video. I don't know if it was snuck out from the stream or what it was, but it was nice and cleaned up and crisp and it had a lot of good crowd shots of people crying and singing along with them and it was a wonderful send off. Yeah, another small tangent. I'll make this quick. I meant to mention it when we were talking about the, the artists that he's brought in over the years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, since his passing, the artists that he didn't bring into the fold have been posting on social media the rejection letters from ozzy and sharon. Wow, it's actually there's like seven or eight of them I've seen and it's people who were trying to come out at the time or they were like you know, hey, I'm in this band, or they're. They'd be like you know, hey, I got this call from somebody who said can you be in New York or wherever tomorrow to play for Ozzie? I'd come in and play. A week later or two weeks later I'd get this letter in the mail and they showed the letters signed by Ozzie and Sharon. Later I'd get this letter in the mail and they showed the letters signed by ozzy and sharon. Um, I think she was still signing as arden because of the manager's license or something at the time.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, you know, we decided to go another way. We really loved your package you sent in. Uh, you're a brilliant, beautiful player. Please let us know what you do in the future. We hope to do something with you in the future. Very professionally written, even if they were not form letters, because I've not seen the same one twice. Right, right, somebody at least put some thought into it. Whether ozzy ever signed his name to it or not, I have no idea. But the respect from the artists pouring out who went on to do things, that's great, that's great.
Speaker 2:I said hey, and some of those people, I think, showed up at back to the beginning and and played. They're like.
Speaker 1:You know, I hadn't oh, like maybe in the super group or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah they said you know, I tried out one time and you know I got this rejection letter and at the time I was like I'm crushed. But you know, at the same time, hey, ozzy, he at least pretended to like my stuff, you know. So I've got something going on there. Yeah, the tributes have been pouring out. I've seen everything from lady gaga doing a crazy train at the end of one of her shows this week. Yeah, um, uh, not weird al, but uh weird al's opening act, piddles Pity Party. He was on America's Got Talent several years ago. He's a clown that does classical music. He did a classical breakdown version of Crazy Train and, of course, the artists that are rock that just continue. I think Judas Priest did one at Hellfest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so I think you're right.
Speaker 1:I think you're right. And look, the tributes are going to continue to pour in for a little bit and whether it's from other bands or artists or guys like you and me, the tributes are going to keep pouring in for for a while now. And that just goes to to, to speak of the um, the impact that that ozzy had on the uh, on the music industry, and especially the, you know, the hard rock and heavy metal uh side of it.
Speaker 2:So, um, we haven't even got into one of the biggest, biggest problems, not problems, sorry, no, we didn't. We didn't talk about the prmc or the pmrc always say pmr, pmrc, yeah no we decided solution or any of that stuff. I mean, he was part of that, even though he didn't testify in front of congress.
Speaker 2:He was on the the nasty his no, his records were getting labeling also, so yeah, we have uh parental advisory stickers to, to sort of thank ozzy for, and a lot of artists with their record sales. Oh yeah, he put an infusion in there as well. Yeah, sorry, I'll cut off now because that's. I could go on forever about this, no, but, but.
Speaker 1:But see, that's the great thing is that there's so much and unfortunately we don't have enough time to get through this and besides, people start dropping off after a little bit too.
Speaker 2:This is going to sound terrible, but I went to my local record store, karma, here in Indianapolis on Washington street. I told him I would say their name on here because of just cause I want to promote local record store. I love it, I love it. I now regret not buying the three Aussie bobbleheads they had on the state on the store. Oh no, they had three like Funko pops bopple bobbleheads. They had on the store shop. Oh no, they had three Funko Pops bobbleheads. They had a Blizzard of Oz. They had a Diary of a Madman it's whichever one. He's holding the cross. I think it's Diary that one's Blizzard, the other one he's on the ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but doesn't he have a cross on Blizzard?
Speaker 2:Maybe One of them he's on the ground? Yeah, but then you have a cross on them on blizzard. Maybe one of them he's standing up looking crazy.
Speaker 1:I think that's I want to say that's diary yeah diaries where he's looking, and the other one he's crawling yeah, there's the one with him holding the cross, looking crazy with the makeup.
Speaker 2:There is um ozzy with his john lennon glasses. I called him with his little, uh, prince of darkness cane. And then there's one on him with him on a throne of, like the, the big bat in the background. I actually was going to try to do it before the podcast, but I have a 3d printer. I was going to print a bust of Ozzie because on all the 3d printing websites people have put up hundreds, if not thousands of bust.
Speaker 2:Uh, they've done the remakes of the funko pop. There's one that I downloaded. That's just him looking sort of like john lennon, because he always quoted, or he was quoted as saying I want to be the fifth beatles why I got into music.
Speaker 1:The beatles were a huge influence on him. Yes, Huge influence on him.
Speaker 2:That's another five-hour episode right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe that's why he went to those John Lennon-style sunglasses, you know, because he became very synonymous with that look.
Speaker 2:He even covered a John Lennon song on his much maligned cover song on his much maligned cover song called or he did. It was called Undercovers, but he did Working Class Hero.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:By John Lennon. But yeah, he definitely adored the Beatles. He always said that the Stones were fine, but John Lennon was what got him going. Yeah, and even the solo stuff. So yeah, we, we, we can cover that when we touch on Black Sabbath years Cause we'll now that you've got my juices flowing, we've got to do that there we go. Maybe I'll even throw up a top 20 or something, or we can talk about top 20. I know you're not as well versed, but maybe between Sabbath and Ozzy you could throw together a top five.
Speaker 1:I can contribute something here. Come on, hey, it's your show.
Speaker 2:We'll let you do what you want. I'm just the talking head here, rambling on for an hour and a half.
Speaker 1:Like I said, you're the one that's going to fill in all the gaps.
Speaker 2:You're the eye candy. I'm just the useless knowledge that pours out.
Speaker 1:I'm just the useless knowledge that pours out, please, and you've done a tremendous job of filling those gaps too. Look, yeah, we could just keep going on, but let's cut it right here. Let everyone go. Stick with me for a second, listen. If you've enjoyed this, then you'll have to come around whenever part two or our Black Sabbath special comes in. It depends. We may do it here on the Ben Maynard program. You may have to tune into Talking Rock Band to get that. All right, you know, either way, you need to check out both of these podcasts. So with that, as you know, this program is available.
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