Ozzy Osbourne passed away last July 22, a few weeks after celebrating his music with his fans one final time in his hometown of Birmingham. Originally the lead singer of Black Sabbath, Ozzy would eventually carve out a legendary solo career, leaving a gigantic mark on the world of rock music.

Ozzy’s story is for the ages. After getting “fired” from his original band, he would launch a solo career to equal, and some may even say surpass, the stature of Black Sabbath. Ozzy would shine on his own and with him, launch the careers of all these stellar guitarists, including Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, and Zakk Wylde, with whom he would produce memorable rock anthems such as “Crazy Train,” “Bark At The Moon,” and “No More Tears” respectively, and more.

Ozzy’s life is not without its turbulence. But he would overcome his drugged-out, booze-fueled daze and flip the perception of what rock iconography is in The Osbournes. One can be the ‘Prince of Darkness’ but at the same time be a goofy, loving cat dad prone to dropping F-bombs every other sentence. I mean, those who can discern properly would rather have Ozzy’s funny, filthy-mouthed take than today’s influencer who filters everything and chooses what to frame ‘for the ‘gram’ so to speak. But I digress.

My personal experience of Ozzy is through listening to and playing his music. Our band used to cover Black Sabbath. We’d do “War Pigs,” “Paranoid,” “Iron Man,” and “Symptoms of the Universe” while immersed heavily in “Sweet Leaf” (wink-wink!). These songs are classic rock staples, and bands cover them as they’re easy to learn and sound so heavy and cool. But our personal preference for Ozzy in particular is his “No More Tears” era of the early 90s. We would cover the aforementioned song along with “Mama I’m Coming Home” and we wore out that cassette by passing it amongst ourselves as we figured out these songs and listened to the whole album at the same time. We’d play these songs on our set, and I remember this one gig, we played Black Sabbath’s “Symptoms of the Universe” in this open-air concert called “Rakrakan Sa Balubaran,” which, unaware, would be dominated by all these punk fans who supported this one band on the bill. All these punk-rockers gawked at us for doing Ozzy and Sabbath! How dare they play this kind of music at our punk celebration? But we made it through without inciting any violent reactions (a testament to our solid playing, perhaps?). One of the punk band’s members flicked his cigarette at me and my vintage Levi's denim jacket while I was playing on stage, though. What can I say? Fun times. Rock and roll!

But yeah, Ozzy! I can write about 500 or so words on a man I haven’t even seen live or in person, because his music played a significant role in my life for a period. What more for those who made Ozzy’s music, or heavy metal in particular, their life’s passion?

That’s why I teared up along with the thousands who watched Ozzy sing (quite appropriately) “Mama I’m Coming Home” for the last time. Confined to his custom bat-winged throne, because he can’t stand up and is probably fighting through pain, Ozzy’s voice is shaking. But here’s the kicker: while doing so, there’s much gratitude in his heart for all the fans who have given their love and support throughout the decades to him as Heavy Metal’s reigning Prince of Darkness.

That’s love. And you can’t get more rock and roll than that!

Rest in peace and power, Ozzy!