MONTREAL - With its 1970 self-titled debut, England's Black Sabbath invented heavy metal. Yes, one can trace genealogical lines back to Blue Cheer, Cream, Led Zeppelin and others. But looking at the big picture, those lines converge into a pentagram with early Sabbath right in the middle, marked by original singer Ozzy Osbourne's distinctive vocals, which hover halfway between a banshee's wail and a creaking coffin lid.
Forty years later, Osbourne is still performing. After striking out on his own in 1979, Osbourne embarked on a successful solo career, abandoning Sabbath's doomy, cobweb-cloaked riffs in favour of more upbeat guitar wizardry, selling millions of albums and cementing his position as heavy metal royalty.
But despite his influence, it took time for Osbourne to realize his role in defining the genre. "Nobody's aware when they're doing that," he said last week in a conference call from Vancouver, where he was partway through a North American tour to promote his latest album, Scream, which brings him to the Bell Centre Tuesday night. "It's like being in the eye of the storm. You don't know what's going on around you. Everybody else is getting their a-- blown off, and you're safe in the middle. You don't really think you've got an effect on what's around you."
Even years later, with Sabbath rightly recognized as pioneers, Osbourne remained oblivious. "Many, many years ago, Metallica were opening up for me," he recounts with his instantly identifiable mumbled staccato, which occasionally sounds like a melting typewriter. "I went by their dressing room. They were playing Black Sabbath records, and I thought they were taking the pi--out of me."
Of course, there might have been other reasons why Osbourne didn't notice his own importance. For much of his career, his drug and alcohol abuse were legendary in their own right, leading to a number of bizarre incidents. From biting the heads off doves and bats to urinating on the Alamo and snorting live ants, Osbourne's behaviour in the '80s vacillated wildly between sinister and just plain gross, like an incontinent Satanist or a blasphemous episode of Jackass.
But he's now sober, and happy for it. "I was doing too many drugs, too much alcohol, and too many cigarettes," he says, "I thought, you know what ... I want to see my grandchildren, I want to be around (to see) my daughter get married, and my son get married. I had to make some changes." And he doesn't care if anyone thinks a sober Ozzy is a boring Ozzy. "It would be a lot more boring if I were six feet under in a fu---ng pine box. That's a total bore."
That lifestyle does, however, include some elements not traditionally associated with heavy metal. For four seasons, he and his family starred in MTV reality series The Osbournes, in which the rocker seemingly gave his Prince of Darkness persona a concussion and a bad hip, shuffling around the house in a state of endearing confusion. And currently, he's penning a health column for London's Sunday Times magazine, which seems a bit like going to a brothel for relationship advice.
But none of this has put a damper on Osbourne's near frequent touring, where lengthy shows focus less on new material than classics dating back to his Sabbath days.
But he dismisses concerns that he's a nostalgia act, the heavy metal equivalent of a Golden Girls marathon.
"It's what the people want," he says of his inclusion of older songs. "I enjoy playing them, the people still enjoy hearing them, so why not?"
And with such a long career, set selection can be difficult.
"If I do too many new songs on stage, they (complain)," says Osbourne. "If I don't, they say 'He has to rely on his old songs.'
"But I've got such a body of work, if I included every song I ever did, I'd be on there for about three weeks."
And Osbourne keeps adding to his oeuvre. Scream is his 10th solo album, and he shows no signs of slowing down. "I don't want to retire right now," Osbourne insists.
"I've got more energy at the age of 62 than I had at 22." Just don't call him a legend.
"I'm just Ozzy, you know," he says. "As much as there's talent, there's a lot of luck involved. ... I could have (died) any which way. But I'm still here. And I count that as a blessing."
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