How Ozzy Osbourne made Birmingham the birthplace of metal

0:00Coming up on The Daily with me, Niall Paterson. How a working class kid from Birmingham invented heavy metal, became a global icon and returned to his roots for a final goodbye. Of course, we are talking about the one and only Ozzy Osbourne after this.

0:18Elton called him a trailblazer. Brian May said he was a unique talent. Foo Fighters said rock and roll wouldn't have been as loud or as fun without him. In the 80s, I was the craziest guy on rock and roll. If you wanted me to do something, tell me not to. It was a no-brainer for this episode, Aussie Osborne, and how life in the factories and foundries of Birmingham helped him, and of course Black Sabbath, bring heavy metal to the world. So obviously we've recruited a Brummie to help us do that, the Birmingham music historian, Jez Collins, will be with us in just a minute. But also our entertainment reporter, Gemma Peploo, who was at that final gig at Villa Park earlier in July.

1:01Gemma, just describe it. How was it? So this was announced earlier this year, but I understand it had been in the works for a couple of years, really, and the mastermind, I think, of Sharon Osbourne, who'd really driven it, built as his final bow. He wanted it to be his last performance, reuniting with Black Sabbath, but also getting all of these incredible metal and rock bands as well on stage so that he could be there to see it. and yeah, I mean, it was quite a thing witnessing it. We spoke to fans there who kind of said, you know, how honoured they felt to be there to sort of see this goodbye.

1:40And fans, they must have been there from all around the world, I'm presuming, because, I mean, even if it wasn't a homecoming for them in going to a concert in Birmingham, it was a homecoming in the sense that this truly is the city where heavy metal was born, wasn't it? And Ozzy Osbourne and the rest of Black Sabbath, they were responsible. Yeah, and you could really see that on stage. I think it was about 10 hours in total. You know, it was a real kind of mini festival throughout the day. And some of the bands that were on, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, and then kind of artists like Stephen Tyler, Ronnie Wood.

2:15We had a drum off, Travis Barker was involved, Chad Smith. And then the kind of handing over the baton to artists like Youngblood, who sang Changes. Well, James Hetfield of Metallica, and it said something on stage. He said, you know, without Ozzy, without Black Sabbath, there would be no Metallica. And it was a sentiment that was kind of echoed by pretty much all the performers who were there, really. They all kind of spoke in different ways about Ozzy's influence, about Black Sabbath's influence, and how that had changed music and inspired them to be there. Who knows whether they would have been without him.

2:48Birmingham was central to this band, wasn't it? They're all from the place to start. Yeah, all from Birmingham. kind of grew up there and it was something Aussie had spoken about in interviews, how kind of proud he was that they were kind of these four lads that, you know, got together to make this music. They weren't put together. There was nothing kind of corporate about it. Villa Park, Aston Villa really obviously meant a lot to him. It meant a lot that fans would get to see him there, that the last show would be there. And I mentioned the kind of little touches around the gig that were really nice.

3:21And towards the end, when they had the confetti cannons, you know, this wasn't kind of sparkly or glittery confetti. It was, yeah, black confetti. And it had a kind of message on it, which said it was something like Ozzy Osbourne, Aston Villa. It had the date of the gig and then Birmingham forever. And I've kept one. I've got it at home now. And I'm sure, you know, thousands of other fans did. And that's what it meant to him. Let's bring in music historian Jez Collins from the Birmingham Music Archive. Jez, very good to have you with us. Hi, Jimmie. Hi, Neil. Jez, let's look back to start with.

4:01I mean, take us to Birmingham in the 60s and just describe the music scene at that point. So in the 60s, Birmingham was a very industrialised city. It was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution going back even further. It had grown exponentially and along with that had come a lot of inner city sort of slums and areas. And out of that, you know, from the 50s going into the 60s, we'd had the American sort of teenage boom or the advent of teenagers in Britain. That was really the seeds of what became known as popular music and really in the UK that associated with the Beatles. many cities followed suit uh you know beatles became huge mersey beat became a thing and in birmingham uh you know it's a city as i say factories and foundries and pubs and clubs and a huge scene developed that any given time about 1964 65 there's reckoned there's about 500 active bands playing in and around the city so you'd see numerous bands on any given night and And very lazily, that became known as Brumbeat.

5:05They just took the name from Merseybeat to Brumbeat. Very similar like the Beatles, although none of the bands obviously became anywhere near like the Beatles. But, you know, mainly two men with guitars, a drummer and a singer, singing about teenagers, love, life, etc. And, of course, Ozzy said it himself, you know, the Beatles were a huge influence on Black Sabbath. Where? Because I'm listening to the music of the Beatles and I'm listening to the music of Black Sabbath and I'm not necessarily seeing the links. yeah i don't think he meant he meant it was a you know a link in terms of the musicality i think it was the idea of something better in life that you know he could use music to escape birmingham or at least i don't think he wanted to escape birmingham he just didn't want to work in the factories and the foundries that his parents had worked in so i think the music so the beatles i think he saw similar for working class kids from uh liverpool who'd come together and create this whole new soundscape and it was like that's what i want to do that is the thing i want to become uh it's going to offer me a way of escape uh whether again whether it's that's through the lyrics or through the music or just performing whatever it might have been he obviously didn't have an idea what what it would become and he talks you know quite deeply about the the effect that the beatles have had on him and have paul mccartney in particular uh was it was a uh hero to him so it was that that was the thing rather than you know trying to copy the Beatles music.

6:28There was a sense of place though when it came to the Beatles music I mean I presume you would argue the same when it comes to Black Sabbath and Birmingham just explain why. Yeah Birmingham was a really industrial city quite a tough city working class city with Black Sabbath they did work they lived you know four or five minutes away from each other unlike the Beatles who came from across Liverpool. Sabbath actually lived in the same streets each other, you know, five, ten minutes away. Ozzy's house is literally two minutes from Villa Park where they had their last gig. Money was very tight. The area still had lots of bomb damage, so that was their playgrounds.

7:06They go to school in that area. They talk about, they go to work after leaving school, in the factories and the foundries around them, and that was a tough, tough environment. That was like intense heat, intense noise, huge strut forges, big guillotines, really intense. And for them, they said they had to reflect that in the music. They had to reflect their working class upbringing and had to reflect the working conditions that they faced themselves in and their friends and families faced themselves in. And for them, that came through in their music. Jess, for those who are unaware of heavy metal or are perhaps clutching their perils just at the mention of it, Just tell us, what is this genre of music that Ozzy Osbourne so clearly invented, spearheaded, led and then spread around the world?

7:56It's fair to say that Sabbath are the godfathers of heavy metal. I think Burmese is the birthplace of heavy metal. Judas Priest came along not too long after them. Led Zeppelin, I don't think, would say they were heavy metal, but they were blues and heavy rock influence. And there's a particular coming together of unfortunate circumstances. So Tony Iommi, for example, was working in a factory and he was a musician. And at the very last shift he ever did, he did his morning shift on his normal machine, went home. Or the foreman said, when you come back after lunch, I want you to work this machine that he'd never worked before.

8:35He went home, said to his mom, I'm not going back, mom. I'm finished. I'm going to become a musician. And his mother said, no, no, no. This is, again, that really classic working class trait. no son go back to work and finish what the things that you're supposed to be doing so he did go back to work that afternoon and he was asked to do uh press um a really heavy duty press and he caught his hand in the press on his last shift and it crushed uh his the tips of his fingers and they were actually taken off now the family were so poor health and safety wasn't what like it is today uh he went to hospital they couldn't reattach the fingers he was distraught he thought i'm never going to you know play i've just given up work and i can't play my guitar and he got he gets released from hospital goes home and literally the the fairy washing up liquid bottles that we all know in our houses he cut the tops of those off and glued them to the tips of his fingers unbelievable isn't it it is and he down tuned he loosened the strings on his guitar so it wouldn't hurt him as much and when he played that gave him that incredible riff or the beginnings of that incredible riff so it was a industrial accident that turned into something you know horrific and was going to ruin his life into the beginnings of this phenomenon let me know it's heavy metal I don't think there has been a more metal thing ever than almost losing your fingers and turning it into a new musical genre called heavy metal so so fair play but but if we're talking about about heavy metal kind of stars, about personalities.

10:11Yeah, the band was obviously chock full of them, but Ozzy Osbourne was a lead. And he translated that not just into music beloved by millions around the world, but into an extraordinary career. Oh, unbelievable. I think, you know, great bands have the individual components, but it always takes one to be at the front. He tends to be the singer for whatever personality reason that might be. And I think my belief is that Ozzy Osbourne would have been a performer regardless of whatever he went to do. He might have been the joker in the factory that he would make all his mates laugh. He probably annoyed them, but they'd forgive him because he was such an affable sort of character.

10:54He happened to become a musician with this great personality. He had a fantastic voice. We don't often talk about Ozzy's voice, particularly in those early albums. It wasn't trained. It wasn't forced. It was just this incredible falsetto that he could bring along with the sort of hard-edged of the blues. And it just transcended. And I think a lot of that came through Ozzy and through the lyrics that he sang about. They sing about anti-war, about environmentalism in those very early stages. They were quite open about themselves. and he then went on to become this global icon but you don't become a global icon if you cannot sing or you cannot write 75 million album sales with black sabbath 65 million with his solo material and counting what's that 140 140 million records so you have to have something you have to have skill dedication and passion so it's not just he could get up on stage and mess around and and people loved him there's a lot more to him than than just that i think to what extent is black sabbath still a still a big part of the city now would you suggest a huge part i think uh you know i think it's one of those where as soon as the sort of final gig was announced i had the end tour in in 2017 where we thought that was going to be the end uh of them touring and there's a lot of you know love and and fuss made about that but uh they carried on recording and doing things and i think once this last gig was announced aussie's health has obviously been deteriorating for for a number of years and i think there was a sense that you know we it's amazing that they're coming home and they're coming i'm not just you know into bernie but to aston uh that i mentioned that is so so important uh to the genesis of of both black sabbath and heavy metal and to see and to feel it sounds a little bit trite isn't it but to feel the love and affection and the warmth for Aussie and for Black Sabbath in the lead up to the gig.

12:52There's exhibitions, there's murals, The Crown, when they started, has had some remedial work on it. There's been a big collaborative effort by a whole range of different people and organisations to come together to celebrate them. And in the lead up, it just felt magic. And I think the city now, I think it's galvanised the city to think, actually, we need to do more. Of course, they got the freedom of the city just the week before the gig and that's the highest honour our city in Birmingham can bestow on people, a real honour I think. Yeah, it is and Gemma Pepler actually you and I talking before I mean you couldn't help but get caught up in the moment could you?

13:31Oh it was incredible, I mean exactly as Jez has just said there the warmth and the love from the artists on stage and the people in the crowd, it was just so palpable and yeah, it obviously meant so much to him to do it there and to the fans there to see him there on stage at Villa Park as well it was um yeah it was really quite a special thing to be part of it was very very emotional and I'm not a very emotional person when he did my mirror I'm coming home and you could see him crying and choking up and the whole stadium took a collective and tried to suck the tears up we knew this was the final show it was obviously a reunion which everyone was very very excited about but billed as the the final show but I don't think anyone well I certainly didn't have a sense that this would happen quite so quickly no me neither I was I was privileged to be there I was privileged to be backstage and as he actually walked in front of me uh you know Jack and and Amy were were um or Jack and Kelly, I think he was actually, were linking his arms.

14:38But he looked, you know, well, when he got to stage, he looked bright and mischievous. I mean, he was, you know, in his own Aussie style, he was trying to get the crowd going, which I won't repeat on the podcast, but you can imagine this is what he said. He was trying to get out of his chair and dance. And then the photographs after, you know, in the backstage area with all the other musicians, he seemed really lively. So, and I don't know if you feel this, Gemma, but, you know, sort of fitting and poignant that actually he got through what was clearly a huge thing for him to do in his home of Aston and you know we don't often get us to have those sorts of the warmth and affection while we're alive it normally happens after we pass or people pass so for him to be able to be there and witness it I think it hopefully offers some comfort to the family.

15:30In your mind when you think of Ozzy Osbourne, is there one incident, is there one record, is there one moment in your life that you'll forever associate with him? I think there are many. I mean going away from the mute, I mean just the Osbournes itself, you know the TV programme I think for me as a Brummie we don't often see ourselves on TV or hear our voices on TV or as you know globally and you know I'll come back to the music and it's it but when that first Sharon and we it was just yeah he's like my dad or you know he's like oh yeah he's one of us and he you know he's what you see or what you saw with Ozzy is what you got and I don't he never left those roots so for me my overriding recollection and that legacy of Ozzy is being a Brummie true to himself right through to the end and that I know it sounds again a bit cliche on a podcast for other people around the country going what's he going on about well honestly as a Brummie if you ask Brummies there's a there's a huge amount of love and admiration for who he is and for remaining true to himself in terms of music I I can't get past War Pigs I just every time it plays I mean I've been waiting to do interviews today and they play a clip and I'm singing along thinking stop singing stop singing you're gonna be yeah you're gonna live to whatever million people and they don't hear your voice War Pigs and and that sentiment is just an incredible song and And then Mama, I'm Coming Home, because of the reasons I mentioned earlier, is just the perfect sort of ballad, power ballad.

17:00So that would be my three, I'm allowed three things that I would remember Ozzy by. On a day like today, Jez, do you know what? We'll let you away with it. Jez Collins, Gemma Peplow, thank you both very much indeed. Really appreciate it. The Sky News Daily will be back in your feed tomorrow night around five. And if you're listening to us on Spotify, Fine, I want to leave your own Aussie Osborne memories in the comments. Do so, I'll give them a read. We'll see you tomorrow.