Birthday Special: Top 10 Ozzy Osbourne Albums

Happy Birthday Ozzy Osbourne! The "Prince of F***ing Darkness" was born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, England. The fourth of six children to a poor, working-class family, Ozzy seemed doomed to fail at an early age. A poor student, he dropped out of school at age 15 and had many odd jobs such as working in construction, plumbing, and at a slaughter house. He ended up in prison for stealing, sentenced to six weeks, he was released and given a new lease on life and decided to turn to music. He soon joined several small bands until he joined Earth with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. The band soon changed their name to Black Sabbath in 1969 and changed music history forever creating a new sound which would eventually be known as heavy metal!
After several best-selling albums and world tours, tensions in the band grew as did Ozzy's alcohol and drug abuse, he was fired from the band in 1979. With the help of his now wife/manager Sharon Osbourne, he began a successful solo career and has since become known as "The Godfather of Heavy Metal". From bat-biting lunatic to reality-TV dad, Ozzy Osbourne has been a major figure in hard rock and heavy metal for over 40 years! As one of my favorite music artists I wanted to celebrate Ozzy's 63rd birthday with this list. CHERNOBOG'S BLOG Presents The Top 10 Best Ozzy Osbourne Albums: Enjoy!

#10 Scream (2010) - After the departure of guitarist and long time collaborator Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society), Ozzy had recruited up and coming guitarist Gus G. on his latest album Scream, which features songs "Let Me Hear You Scream", "Life Won't Wait", and "Let It Die".

#9 Ozzmosis (1995) - After Ozzy returned from his so called "retirement" after No More Tears, he released a somewhat different sounding and experimental album, Ozzmosis, which featured "I Just Want You", "See You On The Other Side" and "Perry Mason". Shortly after this album, Ozzy released a greatest hits album, The Ozazman Cometh (1997), which included a new song "Back On Earth" and several previously unreleased Black Sabbath demos.

#8 Down To Earth (2001) - After a seven year-long hiatus Ozzy released Down To Earth which went platinum in 2003. The album featured bassist Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies) and drummer Mike Bordin (Faith No More). It includes songs such as: "Gets Me Through", "Dreamer" and "Running Out of Time". During the tour which included the performance Live at Budokan, Ozzy recruited former Metallica bass player Jason Newstead after Trujillo joined Metallica which caused much controversy.

#7 Black Rain (2007) - After another long hiatus Ozzy and guitarist Zakk Wylde would join to record a new album, Black Rain, which includes: "Not Going Away", "I Don't Wanna Stop", "Black Rain". Unfortunately in 2009 Ozzy decided to seek a new guitar player, claiming Zakk's style was becoming too much like his own band, Black Label Society, which he had been playing on and off with since 1998. Later that year, Ozzy would perform at BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment's annual gaming convention and to the shock of many fans, with his new guitar player Gus G!

#6 The Ultimate Sin (1986) - Ozzy's 4th studio album featured bassist Phil Soussan and drummer Randy Castillo (died in 2002). It included the title track "The Ultimate Sin", "Killer of Giants", and the hit single "Shot in the Dark" (one of my personal favorites) which was also co-written by Soussan and unfortunately later was not re-issued due to continuing legal battles with the bass player.

Ozzy in the '80s

#5 Bark at the Moon (1983) - After the untimely death of guitarist Randy Rhoads, Ozzy recruited guitar player Jake E. Lee, formerly of Ratt, to record his third album which featured "Bark At The Moon", "Rock 'N' Roll Rebel", and "Now You See It (Now You Don't") it quickly went gold. The music video for the title track was filmed in an actual sanitarium outside of London.

#4 No Rest for the Wicked (1988) - After Jake E. Lee left Ozzy in 1987 and Ozzy continued to suffer with drug and alcohol addiction, he soon found guitarist Zakk Wylde and recorded No Rest for the Wicked which included songs like "Miracle Man", "Crazy Babies" and "Breaking All The Rules". With the following tour Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. Later they would release a live album, Just Say Ozzy in 1990.

#3 No More Tears (1991) - Considered to be one of Ozzy's most popular and most commercially successful albums, No More Tears featured the Grammy winning song "I Don't Want To Change The World" along with "Mama, I'm Coming Home", "Road To Nowhere", and the title track "No More Tears", the edited version would would see tons of radio play as well as the video on MTV. This would be the second album to feature guitarist Zakk Wylde. Also lending his songwriting talents to the album was Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead. After touring for the album Ozzy claimed he was retiring with his "No More Tours" Tour, but he would soon return...

#2 Diary of a Madman (1981) - Ozzy's second album was released only a year after his first to keep his name and sales fresh on the Billboard charts. It featured such hits as "Over The Mountain", "Flying High Again", "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll", and "Diary of a Madman". Sadly, shortly after the album's release, guitarist Randy Rhoads was tragically killed in an accident involving a light-aircraft on March 19, 1982. His friendship with Ozzy and his musical genius will never be equaled.

#1 Blizzard of Ozz (1980) - The first and the best, Blizzard of Ozz was Ozzy Osbourne's debut solo album. Featuring guitar virtuoso Randy Rhoads, Blizzard of Ozz was originally the name of the band but they soon realized that Ozzy's name would be the driving force and with the next album left it simply as Ozzy Osbourne. Blizzard was a huge commercial success, selling over 6,000,000 copies and certified 4X Platinum. With songs like "I Don't Know", Goodbye to Romance", "Mr. Crowley", "Suicide Solution" and of course, his most famous hit: "Crazy Train", makes Blizzard the #1 Best Ozzy album that has since never been surpassed!

LINK: The Official Ozzy Osbourne Website

My photo of Ozzy at "I AM Ozzy"
booksigning in Dallas, TX, 2/27/2010
See my blog entry: An Adventure in Dissapointment