Editorial: Thoughts on the Passing of Ozzy Osbourne

As a Brummie, having lived in Birmingham for the last two years or so, when Ozzy died it felt like the city's soul had taken a hit. I hate to drop a Harry Potter reference, and buckle up, it will be a cringy one but if Ozzy had horcruxes, the city of Birmingham would surely be one. He embodied the soul of the city itself, specifically in old age, friendly but gnarly, unhinged and roughed-up.

My personal relationship with the music is that, in university, I loved that first two Black Sabbath albums. Black Sabbath and Paranoid. The former's cover is one of my favourite album sleeves ever: it looks so eerie and unsettling without being blunt and blatant. They easily -- and god knows, many metal bands do these days -- gone for something so horrible and crude. Instead they went with an image that, instead of lashing out at you, felt like it instead wrapped its coils around your mind the longer you looked.

In terms of writing, Salem to Salem would not have happened without Black Sabbath. Quickly, it discovered how they formed a venn diagram between the Sixties and the old, feudal era in British history; where witches, fairies, black magic was widely believed to have existed. Black Sabbath in the sixties -- maybe they realised -- came at the end of an era which felt near-Elizabethan-Golden-Age, this explosion in art, culture, freedom -- including sexual freedom. And what followed that? The witch hunts. The witch trials. Plague. (Civil) War.

Ozzy lived such a wild life it's kind of amazing he lived so long. This is someone who ate a live bat on stage. Do you know how many germs bats have? They literally spread Ebola (and potentially Covid). Yet, still, Ozzy outlived David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Elizabeth II, Brian Wilson, John Lennon and George Harrison.

Finally, I'd like to say that for all the talk of "worshipping Satan" (which was clearly just a way of getting publicity), one of my favourite Black Sabbath songs "War Pigs" is an eloquent, powerful condemnation of war. A song we need now more than ever.