RIP Ozzy Osbourne

  One of my worst Rock Hall inductee predictions occurred last year when I didn't pick Ozzy Osbourne to be a 2024 inductee.  

This is what I wrote in my inductee predictions post last year:

"Of all the nominees, this is the one that stumped me the most. Here we have a good test of the metal bias that many accuse voters of having.  Ozzy is a household name. Is that enough?"

  I regretted my choice the minute I posted my predictions.  And sure enough Ozzy got in on his first try as a solo artist.  No, I wasn't wrong about the voters' bias against metal.  But I failed to grasp that Ozzy transcended the metal genre, with an assist from the early 00's reality show.  And yes I was aware that it took Black Sabbath a ridiculous 8 tries from 1997-2006 to get voted into the Hall.  But Ozzy was a household name who was beloved by so many of his fellow artists.  And his death shows that he had a cross musical genre appeal not just with music fans but musicians too.  

  Admittedly, I was late to embrace the metal genre.  Most of my life I listened to all genres of music, but missed some until my 20's and 30's.  Prog was one genre.  But metal was a big one.  Luckily, I became friends with a guitarist for a Bay Area metal band who turned me on to all sorts of metal acts.  Black Sabbath were one of them.  Sure I always knew who there were and heard their most popular songs.  But I never listened to their first albums.  The ones that basically invented heavy metal as we know it today.  Because of MTV, I also knew Ozzy's solo career more than Sabbath's music.  I liked quite a few of his solo songs (especially 1986's "Shot In The Dark", a MTV staple that year). 

  Ozzy was a character that only the power of Rock and Roll could have created.  Luckily he had a sense of humor about him.  The Prince of Darkness was often lighthearted.  That's how I'll remember him.  "Paranoid" is immortal, heavy metal will never die and Ozzy was its leader for nearly 60 years and forever.