(Credits: Paramount Plus)
Tue 30 September 2025 13:00, UK
It would have been impossible for someone like Ozzy Osbourne to look back on their legacy and not be proud.
‘The Prince of Darkness’ practically birthed an entire genre out of nothing with Black Sabbath, and even when most artists were dead after they got fired from a group, Osbourne’s solo career is proof that anyone could pick up the pieces and find their way into superstardom all over again. But even if he seemed to be winding down in the years leading up to his death, he knew the records would speak for themselves.
Looking through his entire body of work, there aren’t really too many albums that are outright terrible. Sure, there might be a few that suffered from some production cough-ups or the ones that aren’t necessarily mainline records like his covers album, but it’s all worth it to hear Blizzard of Ozz or watching him roaring back into stardom on No More Tears once the 1990s kicked in.
But as much as Osbourne loved the idea of playing for as long as he could, nothing in the studio was going to compare to playing live. He loved the idea of making records like the way The Beatles did, but there was no one more excited to be at an Ozzy Osbourne show than he was, which became all the more endearing when he started to build up the kind of reputation as one of the most wholesome madmen anyone had ever seen.
Sure, he bit heads off bats and urinated on the Alamo in the past, but none of that was too serious for him as long as he could be happy playing music at the end of the day. But even if the live show was where he thrived, he wasn’t necessarily in love with the idea of making live records for the masses every single time.
After all, live records already have a reputation for being the least important part of most bands’ discographies. There are exceptions in the case of people like Peter Frampton, Kiss, and Cheap Trick, but even if Osbourne had some stellar live material in his back catalogue, he knew there was a difference between making an artistic statement and the records that were released exclusively to make money.
That’s why a record like Just Say Ozzy became a record that Osbourne wished had never come out, saying, “I’m old-fashioned in the sense that I like the song to sound like the song. I don’t even like live records; I haven’t really acknowledged the release of Just Say Ozzy. Those songs have already been done. Why do them again?” Even if that was a greatest-hits EP disguised as a live record, it’s not like Osbourne doesn’t have great live material to choose from, either.
Sabbath’s live records could be a little bit hit or miss depending on what kind of lineup you were listening to, but Tribute is the kind of record Osbourne could proudly put next to his all-time classics. He may not have bested what he did in the studio every single time, but for a record that memorialised Randy Rhoads, it was astounding knowing that he could play that fast and precise even when on the live stage.
Not all the live albums could be winners, but if there was one thing that all of them guaranteed, it was that Osbourne was always going to be himself whenever he took the stage. Whether that was playing in his solo band, with Sabbath, or the one-off collaborations with friends like Metallica, Osbourne always gave the best that he could to make sure everyone in the place was going as crazy as possible.
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