Last Sunday at the Grammy Awards a supergroup, featuring Slash and Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Andrew Watt (producer) and superstar Post Malone on vocals, honored OZZY OSBOURNE by playing Black Sabbath‘s classic juggernaut War Pigs. Remarkable tribute it was. Ozzy, who passed away last summer, aged 76, would have loved it, absolutely.
His family was very touched by this Ozzy celebration.
“This is Ozzy Osbourne like you’ve never seen before: an honest, warm and deeply personal portrait of one of the greatest rock stars of all-time, detailing how the singer’s world shuddered to a halt six years ago, forcing him to contemplate who he really is, confront his own mortality and question whether or not he can ever perform on stage for one last time.
Addressing his health issues and impact of his Parkinson’s diagnosis, the film showcases
the central role music continues to play in Ozzy’s life – also proving his mischievous sense
of humor remains resolutely intact despite it all.”
TRAILER
In addition to his family, many of Ozzy’s musical colleagues were interviewed for the film: Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Duff McKagan and Slash (Guns N’ Roses), Robert Trujillo and James Hetfield (Metallica), Billy Idol, Maynard James Keenan (Tool), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Ozzy’s longstanding guitarist Zakk Wylde, Andrew Watt, Billy Morrison, Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Mike Inez (Alice In Chains) and Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins).
They teamed Aeromsith‘s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry up with Yungblud
and Extreme’s guitarist Nuno Bettencourt for a couple of Ozzy/Sabbath
covers.
The general reactions on social media were disapproving.
Dan Hawkins, the guitarist of British rock vets The Darkness posted
a short video of world star Ariana Grande looking flabbergasted,
with the words “what a bunch of bellends” written across the screen.
As a caption, he wrote: “Another nail in the coffin of rock n roll. Cynical,
nauseating and more importantly; shit. Makes me sick how people jump
on this shit to further their own careers. #whatabunchofcunts.”
It’s funny and hypocrite that Hawkins reacts this way as his mainstream glam
rock band did/do everything and used/use every trick in the book to sell records.
I’m so sure that The Darkness would have drooled if they had the chance to do
that tribute.
Anyway, I was intrigued and watched the official
video of the performance on YouTube.
And? What would you expect from MTV? The whole thing was a bombastic charade with a selected and coached audience faking their euphoria and artists acting totally over the top. Love or hate it. Me, I didn’t know, honestly, that MTV was still active. Never liked its
superficial approach, image over music. Hello, goodbye MTV.
For the past few weeks metal pioneers BLACK SABBATH dominated the (rock) news.
On July 5th, Ozzy and the band played their final concert. A massive event baptized ‘Back To The Beginning’ featuring an incredible cast of famous hard-rocking guests.
Then last week the surprising and shocking news of Ozzy‘s passing
came in. Whether you’re a metal/Black Sabbath fan or not, you should
have at least heard of a madman, named Ozzy. He was 76.
And today it’s the 50th anniversary day of their 6th LP SABOTAGE.
The longplayer was released on 28 July 1975, today 50 years ago.
Geezer Butler (bassist) about the album’s title: “Around the time of Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath, we found out that we were being ripped off by our management and our record company. So, much of the time, when we weren’t onstage or in the studio, we were in
lawyer’s offices trying to get out of all our contracts.
We were literally in the studio, trying to record, and we’d be signing all these affidavits
and everything. That’s why it’s called Sabotage – because we felt that the whole process
was just being totally sabotaged by all these people ripping us off.”
Sabotage‘s front cover got mixed reactions over the years. By some it’s regarded
as one of the worst album covers in rock history. The inverted mirror concept was
conceived by Graham Wright, Bill Ward‘s drum tech, who was also a graphic artist.
The band attended what they believed was a test photo shoot
for the album cover, thus explaining their choice of clothing.
Rolling Stone Magazine: “Sabotage is not only Black Sabbath’s
best record since Paranoid, it might be their best ever.”
The album peaked at #7 in the UK and #28 in the US.
