The Prince of Darkness has always had a soft spot for his family. Whether it’s appearing alongside his loved ones on screen in the pioneering reality TV show The Osbournes, declaring his love for his wife Sharon, or penning songs for his kids, it’s clear Ozzy Osbourne is a family man.
In 1977, Osbourne was rocked by the death of his father, who passed away after battling cancer. Not only was he a pivotal figure in his upbringing, but he also made the trademark crosses all the members of Black Sabbath wore and popularised in the late-1970s.
A year after, on the 1978 record Never Say Die, Ozzy revealed to the Record Mirror that the album’s third track was a tribute to his late father, Thomas ‘Jack’ Osbourne.
Osbourne then discussed the heartfelt song while he was explaining his brief hiatus from the band before working on the album. “The initial reason I left, was because my father died,” he explained. “He was 64, and he had cancer. There’s a song on the new album, ‘Junior’s Eyes,’ that’s a farewell song to my father [written] about my grief. We were like brothers.”
The singer went on to explain that his father died on Ozzy’s daughter’s sixth birthday, in the very same hospital room she was born it. “It was weird,” shared Osbourne. “It’s only now that I can talk about it to anyone. I made a fool of myself at the funeral, it was awful, I thought he was just ill, I had no idea he was dying. I just couldn’t cope with it. We were planning to go to Canada.”
But he did reveal other reasons for his decision to take time off, including his well-publicised struggle with substance abuse. Osbourne likened rock and roll stardom to a “24-hour-a-day job”, one that left him exhausted and unable to sleep.
“I was drinking, taking a lot of pills, so I would have ended up as another rock and roll suicide,” he admitted. “Life isn’t worth putting yourself through such agony. Now I’m even trying to give up smoking. I was on uppers and downers, going round and round. I’ve had two nervous breakdowns in the past 10 years.”
His father’s death was all the more painful, given he had a hand in creating Sabbath’s distinctive style. After their thunderous debut, Black Sabbath, came out in 1970, the band attracted all manner of fans, from Satanists to witches.
It reached a point where self-proclaimed wizards were showing up to their gigs, and the band was routinely invited to occult rituals. Ozzy’s father intervened when they said no to those fans, concerned about their threats to curse Black Sabbath.
Reflecting on that period, bassist Geezer Butler told Metal Hammer that it was that which spurred Jack Osbourne to make the band protective jewellery, giving them each a cross to wear to stave off curses. “Ozzy’s father made them for us,” explained Butler. “He used to work at a metal factory making car parts, so he made us these great big crosses out of spare metal.”
