(Credits: Paramount Plus)
Mon 1 December 2025 3:00, UK
It’s virtually impossible to divorce Ozzy Osbourne from his signature dark persona.
Sure, he might have been known to a completely different generation of kids as the bumbling kid in The Osbournes, but whenever he got onstage, there was no doubt that he was one of the almighty masters of heavy metal whenever he played tunes like ‘Mr Crowley’ and ‘Crazy Train’. But even though he had a wealth of material to draw from, ‘The Prince of Darkness’ could get pigeonholed every now and again.
Then again, was there ever a time when Osbourne was ever afraid of doing something outlandish? This is the same guy who took a piss on the Alamo, fell asleep in the middle of a highway intersection, and managed to bite the head off a bat in the middle of a concert. It’s not like someone like that gets uncomfortable with much, but when people started to see him in a different light, there were bound to be consequences.
Even as far back as his days in Black Sabbath, Osbourne was already getting accusations of being a Satanist, despite capping off every one of his performances with the phrase ‘God bless you all.’ It didn’t make any logical sense, but the shoe fit for most of the Christian fanatics of the world that took one look at the cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and drew their own conclusions.
So when Osbourne saw his worst fears come true when one of his fans ended their life while listening to ‘Suicide Solution’. Even if the song wasn’t about that kind of suicide, no musician ever wants that kind of situation on their conscience, so when Osbourne finally did manage to come back into the fold, he remembered being extremely careful about what to say and what not to say.
But the pop charts did like to play a bit fast and loose with the rules when it came to what could be said. There were already more suggestive material going on in major videos making the rounds on MTV at the time, and while Osbourne might have been more recognised as a villainous figure in the eyes of most mainstream listeners, he felt that he would have been a dead man walking if he had tried to get away with what Pet Shop Boys did on ‘West End Girls’.
While Osbourne look like the furthest thing from the electronic duo, he felt that they were getting away with murder compared to what he was singing, saying, “They’re telling me I’m putting ideas of people shooting themselves in their heads. I was watching MTV the other day, and there was a band come on called the Pet Shop Boys, and you want to hear the opening lyrics of that song? ‘There’s a madman in town/ Put a gun to your head/ Pull the trigger.’ Something like that. I thought, my god, that’s probably going right over their heads, but if it was Ozzy Osbourne singing that song, I’d have fuckin’ pilgrims down at the hotel in a minute.”
It’s not like he didn’t have a small point there. It all depends on how well someone decorates their songs half the time. Osbourne could have written one of the most saccharine music that anyone had ever heard, and yet if it still had his voice on it and a snarling guitar, there’s a chance that he could’ve been locked away even if he sang a Bee Gees song in the wrong context.
So when Osbourne said that he couldn’t sing that kind of song, it was almost for his own protection in a sense. Anyone else would have been forgiven for writing about something dark on the pop charts, but the idea of giving one of the supposed biggest enemies of mortality singing it? Not a chance in hell.
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