Rock legend Ozzy Osbourne died this week. Here’s a look back at his Jacksonville concerts

Ozzy Osbourne, rock’s “Prince of Darkness” who died this week, had a long history of playing concerts in the Jacksonville area. His most recent Jacksonville performance was as a headliner at the Welcome to Rockville Festival in the EverBank Stadium parking lot, but he’s played at least seven times in the city, either as a solo artist or with Black Sabbath.

Online records show that Osbourne played at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in 2011 and the old Jacksonville Coliseum in 1986. He also played at the Coliseum with Black Sabbath on the 1978 Never Say Die Tour, 1977’s Technical Ecstasy Tour and 1974’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Tour, and at the old Wolfson Stadium baseball park on 1971’s Master of Reality Tour. Black Sabbath also played Jacksonville concerts in 1980, 1982, 1984 and 1994, but Osbourne wasn’t in the band for those shows.

More: See Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance with Black Sabbath weeks before his death

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Here is the Times-Union’s review of the 2018 show:

Ozzy Osbourne performs Sept. 8, 2022, during halftime between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Ozzy has Rockville crowd barking at the moon

Don’t bury Ozzy Osbourne just yet.

The veteran rocker played his first concert since turning 69 on Friday, closing out the first night of the three-day Welcome to Rockville festival in and around Metropolitan Park.

“Let me tell you something,” he announced to the crowd. “I’ll never retire. I ain’t going nowhere.” (Well, he may have interjected another word in there, but it’s a family newspaper so we’ll leave it to your imagination.)

Sure, Osbourne doesn’t so much prowl the stage as lurch around it, but he showed a surprising amount of energy Friday night — and he sounded great.

That may be due, at least in part, to a killer band that pushes his familiar songs hard. “War Pigs,” a song that dates back to 1970 and Osbourne’s time with Black Sabbath, got a supercharged treatment that featured a massive singalong, a drum solo and a long, long guitar solo that saw guitarist Zakk Wylde wander into the crowd and play behind his head.

There was nothing particularly new in Osbourne’s set. He’s been playing with the same band for several years, and the setlist was pretty much what you’d expect to hear — “Bark at the Moon,” “No More Tears,” “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution” and “Shot in the Dark” all were featured. The closing run through “Crazy Train,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home” and “Paranoid” was the cap to a long day of hard rock.

The festival is played on three stages — one near the old Met Park stage, another along the river and the main stage in EverBank Field’s Lot J, with Gator Bowl Drive closed to traffic so fans can drift from one stage to the next. If all that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s exactly the property the Jaguars are proposing to develop into an entertainment district.

The crowd was huge on Friday and endlessly entertaining to watch. The bands weren’t always so engaging, especially early on, when screaming singers seemed to be everywhere. Things turned around in the early evening when Halestorm took the stage behind powerhouse singer Lzzy Hale, followed by a very strong set by Five Finger Death Punch (whose members look every bit as mean as the band name sounds, but have a surprisingly melodic touch hidden between the brutal riffs).

Seventeen bands played Friday, and dozens more are scheduled to appear Saturday and Sunday. Avenged Sevenfold is Saturday’s headliner; Foo Fighters close the festival on Sunday. – Tom Szaroleta/Florida Times-Union

And here’s a review of his 2011 show at what was then known as Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena:

Hey, Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t so bad

Ozzy Osbourne performs inside Veterans Memorial Arena on Feb. 22, 2011. [Bobby King/Jacksonville.com]

Maybe having such low expectations was just unfair. Then again, maybe that’s what made Ozzy Osbourne’s concert surprisingly fun, adding an “Oh, hey, this doesn’t stink after all” element. He performed Tuesday night at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. Here’s a rundown of the the show:

Ozzy: Apparently, Ozzy likes to be wet. He spent almost the whole concert dripping, periodically hosing down himself and the crowd with sudsy water. If he didn’t do that between songs, he dunked his head in buckets, some of which he emptied on the crowd.

After an unremarkable set by Slash, Ozzy was able to instantly energize the crowd. To do that, all he had to do was get on stage. His presence was strong, he had no problem getting the crowd to interact, and his vocals sounded like, well, like Ozzy. He really warmed up after the first two songs, showing that he can still belt it out and be weird and, though a little soft around the middle now, still run around wildly. (But he’s no Angus Young of AC/DC, who in his 60s, still truly seems like a hopped-up maniac.)

He declared himself still “crazy” multiple times and said, “You know, it’s [expletive] great to be insane,” and “I’m Ozzy. I’m crazy. I can do whatever the [expletive] I want!” He’s an entertaining weirdo, for sure, but he might seem even crazier if he didn’t keep announcing it.

Let the record show that, like Friday’s story in the Times-Union Jack section suggested, he flashed double peace signs in the air, not the sign of the horns. That hand-horns rock ‘n’ roll salute is not his thing, it was popularized by a different Black Sabbath singer after he was kicked out of the band. Read the story here.

The band: Gus G. is an incredible rock/metal guitarist; others must fantasize about having his shredding skills, but that’s not all he can do. Without him, the show would have suffered severely, as it would have without drummer Tommy Clufetos. Ozzy left the stage for their lengthy solos, and it didn’t even matter.

The crowd: Empty upper levels and spotty in the far end section. But the people there clearly loved Ozzy and stayed nice and loud. Really, a quite respectful bunch that varied in age. Ozzy bridged the generation gap.

The set-up: No catwalks or major embellishments.

Effects: Some fireworks, plenty of lights and a big LCD screen in the stage background. Nothing egregious; pretty straightforward rock concert customs.

Crowd favorites: “Iron Man,” “Crazy Train” and “War Pigs.”

Best songs: “Mr. Crowley,” “Rat Salad” and “Iron Man.”

Weakest songs: “Shot in the Dark” and “I Don’t Want to Change the World.”

Encore: “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” which prompted people to wave lighters in the air. Actual lighters, not lit-up cell phones. Then, “Paranoid” as a rousing clincher.

Opening act: Slash was a bore. His singer didn’t cut it, and Ozzy’s killer guitarist, Gus G., made Slash sound like a 13-year-old in his ma’s basement. Most of the crowd stayed seated for his entire set, including some people on the floor. They perked up slightly for a couple of poor renditions of Guns N’ Roses tunes (“Sweet Child of Mine” and “Paradise City”), but overall, Slash did not incite much enthusiasm. – Heather Lovejoy/Florida Times-Union

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Looking back at Ozzy Osbourne’s concerts in Jacksonville, FL