Ozzy Osbourne died today.
Say what you will about his long history of substance abuse, the man was an icon of heavy metal music. Some would say he invented the genre. Prince of Darkness. Godfather of Metal. That's who he was to his fans worldwide. That's who he remained for decades. That's how he finished.
He played his final gig three weeks ago with Black Sabbath. Ozzy, age 76, sang strapped to a chair to prevent him from falling on account of tremors from Parkin 2 and he sang his Ozzy azz off for his fans and charity.
Actually, it was a throne.
And why not? It was the only way he could give his gift. His goodbye gift to his fans and to this world. All proceeds from the concert were split between 3 charities.
The Cure Parkinson's Trust
Birminghan Children's Hospital
Acorn Children's Hospice.
When I listened to this youtube short intro he made for the last song, Paranoid, it leads me to believe that he knew his health was such that death imminent. Listen to the intro:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VPo9A-rdK64
I was thinking about what I actually knew about his music. Not much. Not into metal at all. Ever. Bit the head off a live bat. I knew that part. I knew quite a lot about his personal life and decided that the only thing I really needed to know to lift him and the family up to the God he believed in was that...
A woman who loves her husband is grieving.
Children who love their father are grieving.
Grandchildren who love their granddad are grieving.
And he loved them.
It seems to me that particularly in his final concert, he gave freely of himself to others.
It further seems to me that he deserved a headline on CNN today. When I looked earlier today there was no reporting on his passing. The Boy told me this afternoon and when I looked there was still no headline. What did he get? He got a slide show shoved off to the right side of the page. And why is that?
Because the whole damn front page is dominated with news about the deviant in the White House.
A person, age 79, who has never had a career or business venture that he didn't kill himself.
A person who would never donate all the proceeds of anything to anyone.
A person who sickens and starves children instead of meeting their needs when he has the power to do it.
A person who couldn't tell the truth about his personal life much less take responsibility of it no matter how many times he had to struggle to do so.
Ozzy Ozbourne who was sexually abused in childhood, who became addicted early on in life, who struggled to free himself from addiction, who built and rebuilt his career several times over on acccount of it and who when he finally did manage to free himself in the face of repeated relapses, was struck with an illness that rendered him disabled.
My point is that he kept trying to be better and do better. He fought demons.
He never lied about the facts of his personal history. He never tried to cover them up. Over the years I've seen his interviews and the reality show the family had. He talked about everything openly right in front of God and everybody.
And he kept striving.
I hope that someone with a better grasp of his musical influence might take over this thread. If you've got favorite photos please post them. All that brought me to it was that since CNN didn't see fit to give him a headline tribute I'd try to give him one here.
He deserved it!
I like this one so much! The place I nabbed it from said he was singing "Bark at the Moon" during an eclipse. I dig this for a Prince of Darkness.
Papa Ozzy and grandson Baby SID 
#rockstory #80smusic #rockband #funny #memes