![\"Ozzy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Ozzy-Osbourne-Singer-Musician-Songwriter-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Sony Music Entertainment)<\/p>\n
Sat 23 August 2025 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
Any band\u2019s hope is to create something that is entirely their own. It\u2019s impossible for anyone to not draw from their influences when they\u2019re putting together their first riffs, but even after years in the spotlight with Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne<\/a> had a keen ear for when bands had something that no one else could touch.<\/p>\n Then again, Osbourne\u2019s first approach to music was a lot different than the \u2018Prince of Darkness\u2019 persona. It was clear that he was never going to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles or anything, but after slogging it out in blues bands, hearing Tony Iommi take cues from horror films and make frightening music is the half the reason why Sabbath has gone down in history as the fathers of all things metal.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not how Osbourne saw his music. Sure, tunes like \u2018Children of the Grave\u2019 and \u2018Symptom of the Universe\u2019 are responsible for spawning different subgenres of heavy metal, but Osbourne always saw himself as a hard rock artist most of the time. After all, that\u2019s the music that most of his friends played back in the day, and looking at the company he kept throughout his personal life, he was as likely to be friends with Robert Plant as he was to hang out with the members of Metallica.<\/p>\n If anyone even thinks about playing rock and roll, though, they\u2019re going to be involuntarily taking pages out of AC\/DC\u2019s playbook. The whole idea of badass rhythm guitar playing could be broken down into Malcolm Young\u2019s right hand, and even if some of their riffs end up sounding like dad-rock to modern ears, there\u2019s a reason why most artists don\u2019t dare to take on any of their classics to cover live.<\/p>\n Osbourne already had his signature sound by the time that records like Highway to Hell were storming up the charts, but he felt that there was hardly any other group that could compete with what AC\/DC were doing, saying<\/a>, \u201cAngus [Young] is like a machine that never stops. He keeps going and going. He still got the fucking energy, man. They are a really great bunch of guys. They are my friends, are real people. There is no other band in the world like them. There is no bollocks, there is no fucking around. Whether you like them or you don\u2019t and I\u2019m proud to say I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n And even with some of their suggestive lyrics, there\u2019s something about the groove that always keeps people coming back. The riffs might be fairly straightforward, but the real challenge behind any great musician is being able to play their riffs and then recreating that in the context of a group.<\/p>\n