On July 5 in Birmingham, England, Ozzy Osborne played his farewell concert with Black Sabbath, the band that laid the groundwork for every incantation of heavy metal that followed. On July 22, Ozzy took his last breath and closed his eyes forever. It was almost as if he decided his work on Earth was done, and the man who played chicken with the grim reaper for 76 years left us on his terms. Even in death, Ozzy was a master of his own reality.
“Whether it was Ozzy’s solo albums or his time with Black Sabbath, his influence is all over what we do as musicians and what made us want to become part of a band,” Matt Gravel, vocalist of the ‘80s metal tribute band Rapid Fire says. “Just like many of his fans, his music got many of us through rough times and gave all of us a level of entertainment like no other. On a personal level for me, I would not be a rock singer today if it wasn’t for the influence of Ozzy.”
In Albuquerque, on the morning the world learned of Ozzy’s death, the radio played songs such as “See you on the Other Side” and “No More Tears” all day. If social media provided an accurate depiction of the state of Burque’s metal community, there were plenty of tears. A 94 Rock broadcast read an old interview Ozzy did with Weekly Alibi in which he says flat out that he wrote “No More Tears” in Albuquerque, proof that our city was an integral part of his immortal legacy. Several radio DJs repeated the phrase, “This is an Ozzy town” throughout the day’s programming. I heard that expression used dozens of times last week by members of the local rock community — including TJ Trout, who has played about as much Ozzy as any radio personality in the country. And as cliché as it sounds, the sentiment is undeniably true, so it was inevitable that a tribute event was going down sooner than later. On Wednesday, July 23, Erica Viking from Coyote 102.5 hosted a candlelight vigil — to be accurate, there were actually more cell phones lighting the venue than candles — at Revel Entertainment Center with live performances from Rapid Fire and local Ozzy Osbourne tribute band Prince of Darkness.
“There are so many Ozzy moments that I could bring up, but for myself, it was watching his live Speak of the Devil concert that aired on MTV back in the day,” Gravel says. “From the stage production, the songs and the power – that show made me want to become a musician very early on. There will never be another Ozzy Osbourne, that’s for sure.”
By nature, the show was organized on short notice, and the bands rose to the occasion. It’s a good thing they did, because thousands of people showed up to watch them pay homage to the Ozzman last Wednesday. Rapid Fire and Prince of Darkness delivered 45-minute sets of Ozzy and Sabbath songs spiked with shots of Judas Priest and other spirits from the ‘80s metal archives, but the bands didn’t necessarily have to practice much. Both bands have Ozzy tunes cemented into their musical repertoires. The crowd of hellraisers watching the madness was as large and rowdy as you would expect during a performance from a touring act, and they drank in the spectacle like it was bat’s blood.
“To be honest, we were taken aback a bit by the whole thing,” Gravel says. “We, as a band, were still processing his passing when we got the call. Once we got with Prince of Darkness to see what they were going to play, we were able to put something together quite quickly. Since we have been doing this for a number of years, it came down to what songs we wanted to play. We have had Ozzy material in our set for some time now, but we also wanted to pay tribute to those bands that he influenced such as Judas Priest, Def Leppard, etc.”
Rapid Fire was established in 2021 as a tribute to Judas Priest. Over the last few years, they transitioned into a tribute to other ‘80s metal royalty, covering bands such as Dio, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Saxon and, of course, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne. Lead guitarists James Campbell and Rodney Hotter do Priest justice, for sure. As do bassist Kevin White, drummer Todd Wilburn and Gravel, who screams for vengeance with high notes that few singers in the city have the pipes to hit.
“Being able to participate in something like this was absolutely amazing and humbling. There are so many of us in this metal scene in Albuquerque that would have been up there paying tribute to Ozzy, the fact that we got the nod to be there was an honor and privilege. The feeling of the crowd cannot even be put into words. It was amazing, and we felt the energy from them on stage. Surreal to say the least.”
Later that night, journalists across the world wiped the sweat off their faces and tried to put the loss of a legend into perspective with keyboard strokes, and at least one of them was still sporting the same Ozzy shirt he’d been wearing for three days. Some of the people who partied in Ozzy’s honor at Revel probably went to work the next day still smelling like Modelo tall boys and weed – and whatever metalhead tears smell like. Hours after the show, Albuquerque rockers tuned their radios to KUNM to jam Tombstone Rock, a show that celebrates the heaviest past and present metal and punk rock acts known to man. The show’s DJ, The Mad Cow, paid homage to Ozzy on the airwaves by thanking him for his contributions to the metal world as we know it and blasting new bands whose extreme riffs, shocking lyrics and abnormal behavior might not have been possible had artists like Ozzy not pushed the boundaries of self-expression so ruthlessly.
Ozzy died for the Ultimate Sins of metal, and we are eternally grateful. It was going to be one of many more restless nights for a wicked city of metalheads. Albuquerque kissed our sweet prince of darkness goodnight and tried to sleep, wondering where the “Road to Nowhere” will lead from here on out.
Albuquerque loves you, Ozzy.