(Credits: Far Out / Warner Bros. Records)
Tue 12 August 2025 18:30, UK
Recently, Ozzy Osbourne’s family shared a post on social media that stopped the music world in its tracks and shook the metal community to its core.
“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” they wrote, “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
People across all of music were affected by the news, as they struggled to come to terms with the fact that a man who has had such a cultural impact on music and the alternative side of sound was no longer with us. Ozzy Osbourne, and the work he did as a solo artist and as a member of Black Sabbath, opened the door for a lot of musicians who previously didn’t know where they fit into the arts.
Of course, while we sit here and praise Osbourne for all of the good music that he put out into the world, it’s easy to gloss over the fact that his career wasn’t always glamorous. Osbourne put out a lot of music that he, his fans, and critics weren’t fans of. One of the albums that he openly hated the most was 1978’s Never Say Die, which was made during a very difficult period for the band.
Their inspiration in the early days of their career was their surroundings; their sound was a complete reflection of where they worked, drank and socialised. When they became successful, those surroundings were left behind, and the band felt a pressure to make music that saw the progression of their sound.
(Credits: Far Out / Warner Bros. Records)
Never Say Die was their attempt to do that, where they championed melody and decided to produce the album themselves. This turned out to be a bad move, as the new approach to writing meant that Sabbath put out a record that didn’t resemble the style that fans had come to know and love.
“We completely lost the plot, I think,” said Geezer Butler, “We stopped doing the things that made Sabbath what it was and began going for more melodic stuff, which was a mistake looking back […] We wanted to do it on our own, but in truth, not one of us had a single clue about what to do.”
“The last Sabbath albums were just very depressing for me,” added Osbourne, “I was doing it for the sake of what we could get out of the record company, just to get fat on beer and put a record out.” He continued, saying that Never Say Die is “The worst piece of work that I’ve ever had anything to do with. I’m ashamed of that album. I think it’s disgusting.”
While the band seem united in their collective hatred of the record, it begs the question, is it as bad as they make out? The quick answer: no. Look, Never Say Die may well be one of the worst albums that Sabbath put out, but it’s not unlistenable. When you listen to other bands, you’ll realise that there are many worse records out there than Never Say Die. The reason the band hate the record so much is because they had high standards for themselves, and also because it reminds them of a difficult period in Sabbath’s history.
The band were caught in the middle of personal disagreements as well as disputes with lawyers and record label executives. Hearing that album will take the band back to a period when the band almost split up and were close to becoming bankrupt. Anybody who goes through something like that is evidently going to listen to music from that period and resent it. Their hatred of the album is understandable, but from the point of view of a casual listener, it also feels somewhat unjustified.
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