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Ozzy Osbourne - TV Tropes

  • ️Fri Sep 30 2011

Ozzy Osbourne (Music)

"ALL ABOAAAARD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

— "Crazy Train"

ALL ABOAAAARD! DESCRIBE THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS HERE!

Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948 in Aston, Birmingham. Also known as Ozzy. Or the "Prince of Darkness", if you want. As one of the first Heavy Metal singers—or maybe even the first—he has been called the "Godfather of Heavy Metal" while he prefers to call himself "The Prince of Darkness." Famous for snacking on winged creatures in the middle of sets.

He's known in many circles as the original voice of Black Sabbath, the band who (arguably) created the Heavy Metal genre as we know it today. You can go to that page to know the rest of the details in his time with them. As the band's popularity declined, Ozzy was ousted from the band for his excessive drug and alcohol use (which continually made him miss gigs). Shortly afterwards, he formed his own band. The group's debut, Blizzard of Ozz, has sold over 6 million copies to date and is generally regarded as one of the greatest metal albums of all time.

In the 2000s, he pioneered the domestic reality show with The Osbournes. Since tropes from that show could fill their own wiki, you're better off putting examples here. Ozzy also took a career in literature, having released a memoir entitled I Am Ozzy in 2010 and the advice book Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy in 2011.

Current Lineup

  • Ozzy Osbourne: Lead vocals
  • Rob "Blasko" Nicholson: Bass
  • Zakk Wylde: Guitar
  • Adam Wakeman: Keyboards
  • Tommy Clufetos: Drums

Discography

Black Sabbath

  • 1970 - Black Sabbath
  • 1970 - Paranoid
  • 1971 - Master of Reality
  • 1972 - Black Sabbath Vol. 4
  • 1973 - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
  • 1975 - Sabotage
  • 1976 - Technical Ecstasy
  • 1978 - Never Say Die!
  • 2013 - 13

Solo career

  • 1980 - Blizzard of Ozz
  • 1981 - Diary of a Madman
  • 1983 - Bark at the Moon
  • 1986 - The Ultimate Sin
  • 1988 - No Rest for the Wicked
  • 1991 - No More Tears
  • 1995 - Ozzmosis
  • 2001 - Down to Earth
  • 2005 - Under Cover
  • 2007 - Black Rain
  • 2010 - Scream
  • 2020 - Ordinary Man
  • 2022 - Patient Number Nine

The Prince of Darkness gives examples of:

  • 10-Minute Retirement: In 1993, Ozzy announced that he'd retire from touring and called his would-be final tour "No More Tours". He got bored after the tour was over, and was back on the road in 1995 and 1996 with "The Retirement Sucks Tour." He finally did retire in 2023, citing severe back problems and worsening Parkinson's Disease.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: His son Jack arranged a private performance with parody group Mac Sabbath, a McDonald's themed Black Sabbath cover band. Ozzy found it hilarious.
  • The Alcoholic: He went through issues with alcoholism, which is the focus of the songs "Suicide Solution" and "Demon Alcohol."
  • Ass Shove: He went for a colonoscopy, and while the doctors kept trying to knock him out and failing, he was watching the display and commented that it was like the "Journey to the Centre of My Arse". Here's the whole conversation...
  • Badass Boast: "Not Going Away"
    • (His boast from the Twilight Ozzfest spoof) "Vampire? Vampires are pussies! I'm the Prince of fucking Darkness!"
  • Bait-and-Switch: The blurb for Ozzy's autobiography opens with Ozzy's father telling him, after a few beers, "You're either going to do something very special, or you're going to go to prison."

    And he was right, my old man. I was in prison before my eighteenth birthday.

  • Bedlam House: "Diary of a Madman" is told from the point of view of someone in there.
  • Berserk Button: He used to have some chickens, back when he was with his first wife. Said chickens never laid any eggs because, she told him, he never felt like feeding them. One night, after having not slept for 24 hours, doped up on cocaine and booze, the button was finally pressed, leading to one of the most hilariously twisted moments in his book: He blows a few chickens away with a shotgun, chases after the rest with a katana, sets the chicken coop on fire, and tosses the rest of his shotgun ammunition into the burning coop, causing many small explosions. And then his neighbor comes walking out, sees Ozzy wearing a tattered, chicken-bloodstained bathrobe, and simply says, "Ah, good evening, Mr. Osbourne. I see you're back from America."
  • Body Horror: The cover of Ozzmosis depicts Ozzy's body covered with extra eyes and mouths. To a bigger extent, Down to Earth, which has his entire body entirely messed up, with two skulls protruding from his head, his face disfigured, his eyes horrifyingly colored red, most of his skeleton being displayed, and tattoos overlapping his body!
  • Break-Up Song: "Goodbye To Romance", a song about him leaving Sabbath, and not, contrary to popular beliefs, about his first wife.
  • British Accents: He has a very thick Brummie accent that is part of the reason he's so hard to understand when he speaks - the other reason being he's completely and utterly brainfried from so many years of hardcore drug abuse... though older videos prove he's almost always been The Unintelligible, even when sober, due to his accent.
  • The Cameo:
    • He appeared briefly in Little Nicky and sung in Motörhead's "I Ain't No Nice Guy", Slash's "Crucify The Dead", and Lita Ford's "Close My Eyes Forever".
    • He also provided the voice and likeness for the Guardian of Metal (basically an expy of himself) in Brütal Legend.
    • His distinctive scream was given to the Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge!.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The live albums Speak of the Devil, Just Say Ozzy, Live and Loud and the studio album The Ultimate Sin. The root of all these deletions, save for Speak of the Devil, is the song "Shot In The Dark". It was his biggest hit of the 80s, one of his most popular songs of his career and featured regularly in his live set from the time it was released until the mid-90s, when the legal rights to the song came into dispute. Ozzy deleted every album that featured it from his catalog except for a greatest hits package (where it was simply replaced by another tune). Recently, he's started playing it again though and the deleted albums are available for purchase on iTunes.
  • Catchphrase: Frequently shouts "Rock and roll!", "Go fucking crazy!" and/or "Lemme see your (fucking) hands!" while performing. Weirdly, he also uses the phrase "over and over" in many of his songs.
  • Charity Motivation Song: In 2005, not long after the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Ozzy and Sharon gathered an all-star cast of singers to perform a cover of the Eric Clapton song "Tears in Heaven" for the benefit of the Disasters Emergency Committee's Tsunami Earthquake appeal and the victims of said tsunami. Ozzy and her daughter Kelly also sang on the song themselves.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Averted in his music. While he's portrayed as a language blasphemer in The Osbournes, you won't hear much of this in his work. In his concerts, on the other hand, you will hear it, as his stage banter is typically filled with it.

    "I can't fucking hear you!"
    "Go fucking crazy for me!"

    • From a live performance of "Mr Crowley":
  • Cool Shades: A key part of his overall look.
  • Cool Teacher: Randy Rhoads was one before joining Ozzy's band. Ozzy said this was a great help when it came to songwriting because Randy had the patience and skill to work with Ozzy and work his ideas into music.
  • Cool Train: "Crazy Train", duh.
  • Corrupt Church: "Miracle Man", about televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who had been caught in a prostitution scandal that same year (which Ozzy took immense satisfaction in, since shortly before the scandal, he was frequently mocked and demonized by Swaggart).
  • Cover Version: Several.
  • Culturally Religious: In his memoirs, Ozzy mentions that his late mother was raised Catholic, but none of the Osbournes were (at least at that point in his life) church-goers. Despite numerous accusations that he and his band promoted or condoned satanism and occult practices (they regularly contend that their musical act is more akin to a horror movie and has released relatively gentle and socially provoking songs at times; they also pissed off satanists themselves by singing "Happy Birthday" instead of yielding to whatever invitations those cultists sent them for their black masses), Osbourne is reportedly a practising member of the Church of England and has prayed prior to his stage performances, also addressing to the crowd "Good Night, God Bless!" after each show.
  • Darker and Edgier: No Rest For The Wicked is arguably Ozzy's darkest and heaviest album, which is strange considering that it's also among his least remembered.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance:
    • Ozzy recalls in his memoirs that his father, John Thomas "Jack" Osbourne, would pull off Al Jolson impressions when Ozzy was little—face painted with boot polish and all—much to the young Osbourne's horror.
    • As was expected of the time when he was little, one of the teachers at primary school was, in Ozzy's own words, a "terrible racist". The things Mr. Lane said, despite of him being otherwise a nice guy, would land you a hate crime charge if you do so yourself.
  • Dented Iron: Ozzy has struggled with substance abuse problems throughout much of his life, and in 2019, he suffered spinal injuries requiring surgery, which were so severe that he was forced to bow out of a long-postponed tour with Judas Priest, effectively putting an end to his touring career.
  • Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The video for "Under the Graveyard" shows that all the drug, sex and alcohol-fueled partying Ozzy did back in the late 70's just wasn't worth it.
  • Drugs Are Bad:
    • Ozzy was well known for his rampant drug and alcohol use, and made him have some terrible and destructive experiences throughout his life. In his later years, Ozzy has said that he's not at all proud of any of his usage. He realizes he nearly killed himself and hurt the people he cared about, and urged the audience that the whole myth of becoming a rock star and living the "high life" with money and drugs really is just a myth.
    • Several songs of his, like “Junkie” from Down to Earth, are basically warnings about being a junkie. Played for drama with “Under the Graveyard”, with its music video more or less showing what kind of life Ozzy was living in 1979, and it is far from glamorous. “Straight to Hell” is another example of Ozzy’s writing about drug use, as he’s warning everyone not to end up like him.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Randy Rhoads looked like he could pass off as a flat chested woman with his long blond hair and very slight body build, particularly before◊ joining Ozzy's band. Rudy Sarzo even said that when Randy and he went clothes shopping, they went into women's stores to get Randy's jeans due to how small in size he was. Ozzy even said that Randy looked very effeminate when he first met him.
  • Epic Rocking: Over the 6-minute mark:
    • "Revelation (Mother Earth)", (6:09) from Blizzard Of Ozz.
    • "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" (6:59) and "Diary of a Madman", (6:14) both from Diary Of A Madman.
    • "Fire In The Sky", (6:24) from No Rest For The Wicked.
    • "No More Tears" (7:23) and "Zombie Stomp", (6:13) from No More Tears.
    • "Thunder Underground", (6:29) "See You on the Other Side", (6:10) "Tomorrow" (6:36) and "My Jekyll Doesn't Hide", (6:34) from Ozzmosis.
    • "The Almighty Dollar", from Black Rain, at 6:57.
    • "Let It Die", (6:06) and "Diggin' Me Down" (6:03) from Scream.
  • Evil Laugh: From time to time, and not just in songs. He can sound pretty evil when he is just laughing at something he finds amusing, without even trying - or if not evil, than at the very least a bit crazy.
  • Faux Affably Evil: "Mr. Tinkertrain" is about a pedophile luring a victim. The very first line in the song is "Would you like some sweeties little girl?/Come a little closer."
  • Forbidden Fruit: In "Walk on Water," he sings about sharing this with the daughter of a magic man.
  • Free-Handed Performer: He remains known for his distinctive voice and stage presence, and the fact that he rarely played any instrument in his career.
  • George Lucas Altered Version: After his original drummer and bassist sued him, he replaced their instrumentation on many of his original albums with new instrumentation by his current drummer and bassist for the 2002 reissues. After much controversy and criticism over the reissues, Ozzy changed his mind, and the original albums were remastered in 2011, without the alterations.
  • Greatest Hits Album: Has a few, such as The Ozzman Cometh, The Essential Ozzy Osbourne, Memoirs of a Madman and the box set Prince of Darkness.
  • Green Aesop: "Revelation (Mother Earth)" from Blizzard of Ozz and part of "Dreamer" from Down To Earth.
  • Grumpy Old Man: He was this in a few interviews in 2010, stating that he didn’t know who Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga were. Cue the irony when he starred in a Super Bowl ad when he and Bieber starred in a Best Buy ad, and Ozzy, in the commercial, shows shades of the trope. He has actually been a grumpy old guy since well, The Osbournes.
  • Hidden Depths: Ozzy's a pretty big history buff. He used to geek out with Lemmy Kilmeister (who he knew since the latter was in Hawkwind) about World War II history. In fact, it's the basis of the late-2010s show Ozzy & Jack's World Detour, a travelogue show on the History Channel starring Ozzy and his son Jack.
  • Homesickness Hymn: "Mama, I'm Coming Home" is a darker, more ambivalent take on the "coming home to a loved one" formula; the narrator talks about how the relationship is far from perfect (in fact, at times it seems downright toxic), but he's ready to come home to her anyway. While the popular lore says that Ozzy wrote it for his wife Sharon Osbourne ("Mama" was his pet name for her), the lyrics were in fact written for Ozzy by Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead.
  • I Am the Band: Pretty much the reason of his solo career. Slightly averted by the fact he's always had a show-off (in a good way) guitarist going mental alongside him in concert.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: “Eat Me”, from Ordinary Man. It was based off the horrifying true story of a German man named Armin Meiwes, who met Bernd Brandes on an online forum. Armin decided to snack on Brandes, and Armin was sent to jail after this disgusting act, but years later, Ozzy thought of the story as humorous because of Los Angeles being a petri dish for vegans and decided to write the song in a similar tone to the story.
  • Iconic Item:
    • Randy Rhoads has his aged white Les Paul, his black and white polkadot Flying V and his prototype Jackson Rhoads.
    • Jake E Lee almost exclusively used his custom black and white Fender/Charvel hybrid.
    • Zakk Wylde and his white "bullseye" Les Paul, and later other models with the same motif.
  • Immune to Drugs: To the point where he had his genome mapped to figure out how on earth he's still alive. The Cambridge project that did so found several genes that allow him to metabolize opiates and alcohol far more efficiently than most humans. Basically, if almost anyone else did as many drugs as he did, they would have died a long time ago. His autobiography describes it best in a minor Crowning Moment of Funny, where Ozzy decided to have a colonoscopy done.
    • Regular Dose of Anesthetic:

      Ozzy: Is that the inside of my arsehole?
      Doctor: Why the hell aren’t you asleep?
      Ozzy: Dunno.
      Doctor: Don’t you feel groggy?
      Ozzy: Not really.
      Doctor: Not even a little bit?
      Ozzy: Nope.

    • Twice the Dose:

      Doctor: How are you feeling?
      Ozzy: Fine, thanks.
      Doctor: Jesus Christ, you’re still awake? I’m going to give you some more.
      Ozzy: Go on then.

    • Three Times the Dose:
  • Ink-Suit Actor:
    • Ozzy's undead warlock in the World of Warcraft "What's Your Game?" ad. Granted, it was crafted out of the actual in-game models, but you have to admit that the resemblance is spot-on and that only an undead warlock character would fit the man.
    • He basically plays himself (a.k.a. the Guardian of Metal) in Brütal Legend.
    • He also voiced the Duke of Drear in The 7D who was also modeled after him.
  • Insistent Terminology: Ozzy has never embraced the term "heavy metal." He always refers to his own music as rock and roll.
  • Klatchian Coffee: He mentions in his second book, Trust me, I'm Dr. Ozzy that he doesn't metabolize caffeine well, making most coffee this for him. He also mentions a recipe for this stuff to someone who wants to wake up: Brew coffee, make a shot of espresso, tip the grounds for the original coffee over and brew them again, make a cup of the twice brewed coffee, add the shot, and drink up.
  • Knuckle Tattoos: He has "OZZY" written on his left knuckles.
  • Large Ham: Not as large as Ronnie James Dio, but he's a pretty close second.
  • Lighter and Softer: While still better known for the spooky and/or occult content (being par for the course with metal bands, no less), Ozzy also recorded some more light-hearted songs as well, the best known being the "Changes" duet with his daughter Kelly.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Ozzy is rarely seen in colors that aren't black or dark blue. In the '70s and '80s, he played this trope much straighter with tassels, tight pants, and everything else that made the eighties as ridiculous as they were.
  • Little People Are Surreal: His video for "Time After Time". Little people in black body suits, playing air guitar.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy:
  • Lyrical Cold Open: ALL ABOAAAARD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
  • Ominous Pipe Organ: "Mr. Crowley."
  • Made of Iron/Made of Indestructium: Probably Ozzy's brain and liver. Time was, nobody really knew how they both lasted for more than 35 years of hardcore drug abuse and alcoholism. But as noted above, geneticists at Cambridge University, looking for the answer to just that question, discovered part of his genetic structure really is Made of Indestructium. He's literally a mutant! Which has also led to Older Than They Look, because Ozzy does not look his age at all.
  • The Masochism Tango: Ozzy and Sharon's fights are legendary in the music industry. Yet despite their seemingly dysfunctional relationship they really do love each other and have been together for decades.
  • Moral Guardians: Not so much a target of them anymore since he's not quite as shocking as he once was, but he was a frequent target of them in The '80s, due to his lyrical content, behavior, and songs that were taken out of context back then as a result of the Satanic Panic, but it seems to have dissipated when The Osbournes got on the airwaves.
  • Murder Ballad: "Bloodbath in Paradise", about Charles Manson and his infamous Family.
  • Mutants: Turns out, being this is the reason he's still alive. His genome being mapped revealed he has several genes that allow him to metabolize opiates and alcohol more efficiently than a normal person.
  • New Sound Album: No Rest for the Wicked and No More Tears more so, due to Zakk Wylde bringing to the table a wildly different style from his predecessors on the guitar, making them possible Trope Codifiers to Alternative Metal.
  • Nobody Thinks It Will Work: He and Sharon were practically the poster couple for this trope, and now they're regarded as one of the few bastions of hope for celebrity marriages, having been married since 1982.
  • One-Man Wail: "Black Rain".
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: His nickname as Ozzy has its origins in his childhood. It was given to him by schoolyard friends/bullies. He later lengthened it to "Ozzy Zig" and then shortened it back to Ozzy prior to Black Sabbath. He has said that his first wife Thelma never called him Ozzy, only John, and that the only people who do it now are his brothers and sisters.
    • Do Not Call Me "Paul": His real name is John Michael Osbourne, but he doesn't like it, to the point that he doesn't even respond to it anymore.
  • Out-of-Genre Experience:
    • No More Tears, where Zakk Wylde combined his usual heavy riffing with jangly clean arpeggios, acoustic guitar and country-style leads to create a Southern Rock feel on much of the album, a sound markedly different from Ozzy's previous music and absent on all subsequent albums.
    • Osbourne contributed lead vocals to the Was (Not Was) dance-pop song "Shake Your Head" with Kim Basinger,note  which was markedly different from his usual hard rock/metal output.
  • Power Ballad: "Mama I'm Coming Home", "Close My Eyes Forever", "Goodbye To Romance", "So Tired". The former is his biggest Hot 100 hit as the sole credited artist (#28), even though the Hot 100 non-entity "Crazy Train" is widely regarded as his Signature Song.
  • Persona Non Grata: Ozzy was banned from San Antonio, Texas for ten years after he drunkenly urinated on a cenotaph outside the Alamo.
  • Pun-Based Title: "Ozzmosis" is a pun of word "osmosis".
  • Rated G for Gangsta: Specially once The Osbournes made him popular with a whole new generation.
  • Rated M for Manly: Although he does show his sensitive side in quite a few songs, he plays this trope straight more often than not.
  • Rags to Riches: He, along with his Sabbath bandmates grew up in the bombed-out remains of Birmingham. Ozzy mentions in his autobiography that he grew up in a tiny two-bedroom house with five siblings, and that the toilet was just a bucket at the foot of the bed, implying that the house might not have even had indoor plumbing.
  • Refuge in Audacity: "I Don't Wanna Stop"

    Too many religions for only one god
    I don't need another savior
    Don't try to change my mind
    You know I'm one of a kind
    Ain't gonna change my bad behavior

  • Retirony: The day before he died Randy Rhoads told Ozzy he wanted to quit the band after the tour and go to school to study classical guitar.
  • Rock-Star Song: "Hellraiser".
  • Rockumentary: The 2011 documentary God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.
  • Sad Clown: Ozzy was described in God Bless Ozzy Osbourne as the band's clown, and used his goofy antics as a coping mechanism to make up for his lack of self-confidence.
  • Sanity Slippage Song: Several examples. It was even lampshaded in a Saturday Night Live sketch where one character commented that "Ozzy Osbourne songs are all about going crazy and not being able to stop it."
  • Satanic Panic: He was frequently accused of being a Satanist. In Geraldo Rivera's documentary, he appeared as a guest and was essentially described (along with other metalheads) as a blood-drinking grave robber.
  • Scary Musician, Harmless Music: In contrast to the many moral outcries over his persona and antics, anybody who's met and worked with Ozzy (provided he wasn't drunk or high during the meeting) will tell you that he is a fun Nice Guy. While he did make a tongue-in-cheek remark "thanking" his infernal beliefs for being able to dodge COVID-19, this video giving a young percussionist a heartwarming "God bless you!" is one proof he's far from the evil shock rocker persona he adopted in his career. Some of his lyrics (such as on "Gets Me Through") make it pretty clear that his "dark and evil" image is just an act. In fact, he often if not always greets his fans a hearty "Good night, God Bless!" after each show.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: "Bark At The Moon":

    Years spent in torment
    Buried in a nameless grave
    Now he has risen
    Miracles would have to save
    Those that the beast is looking for
    Listen in awe and you'll hear him...
    Bark at the moon

  • Serial Killer:
    • The song "No More Tears" is about a serial killer who kidnaps strippers, has sex with them, then tortures and kills them. Specifically, Ozzy has said that the song is about Jack the Ripper. Since it's from the killer's perspective there's some slight hints about his twisted motivation - in the last verse the narrator claims to be "in love" with latest victim, and one possible interpretation of the title is the murderer justifying his actions as putting an end to suffering.
    • The song "Bloodbath In Paradise" is about the Manson family.
  • Series Fauxnale: No More Tears was supposed to be his final solo album and he was gonna retire from the music business afterwards, but he got bored after retiring, and came back four years later with Ozzmosis.
  • "Sesame Street" Cred:
  • Shout-Out: "Mr. Crowley", the Filk Song "Perry Mason".
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: For all the craziness in their marriage, it's pretty clear Ozzy and Sharon really do love each other. And they are not afraid of showing it. As opposed to being diabetes-inducing, it's just sweet enough to be absolutely adorable. The video for his cover of "In My Life" is even dedicated to her.
  • Signature Line: You've heard "Crazy Train." You know exactly what it is.
  • Singing Voice Dissonance: He drops the thick accent.
  • Sinister Minister: The title character of "Miracle Man", which is a Take That! toward Real Life Sinister Minister, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, with whom Ozzy feuded in The '80s.
  • Soprano and Gravel: With Lita Ford in "Close My Eyes Forever", and with his daughter Kelly in "Changes".
  • Start My Own: Twice. After getting fired by Sabbath he started his own solo project and after being told he wasn't cool enough for big rock festivals he started Ozzfest.
  • Stock Footage: The music video to "Ordinary Man" shows footage from Ozzy's life and career as he watches them in reflection.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Before Zakk Wylde got buff and grew a beard he was considered to be one of these for Randy Rhoads, what with the long blond hair and cream Les Paul. He himself admits this (on the grounds of hero worship) and says that when he got hired for Ozzy he had a bullseye painted on his guitar so people wouldn't just assume he was a Randy Rhoads clone. He's since become the longest lasting member in Ozzy's band, having played on five studio albums released between 1988 and 2007.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: As is mentioned above, Zakk Wylde had a white Les Paul that was nearly identical to the one Randy used, so he got it repainted. He wanted it to have a hypnotic black and white swirl (inspired by the movie Vertigo), but the luthier messed up and painted a bull's eye instead. Zakk thought it was cool, and now it's his trademark.
  • Take That!:
    • "Miracle Man", towards televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.
    • Ozzy has said that the lyrics of "Crucify the Dead", the song he sings in Slash's solo album, are what he would tell to Axl Rose if he was Slash. The lyrics have also been interpreted as being directed towards his former bandmates in Black Sabbath.
    • The songs "I Don't Wanna Stop" and "Not Going Away" from Black Rain are Ozzy's responses to critics who say he should retire.
    • "Rock and Roll Rebel" takes a jab at Moral Guardians who accuse Ozzy of being a Satan worshiper.

      They say I worship the devil
      They must be stupid or blind

    • On a similar note, "I Don't Want to Change the World":

      Tell me I'm a sinner, I got news for you
      I spoke to God this morning and He don't like you
      You're telling all the people the original sin
      He says He knows you better than you'll ever know Him

    • "Who the fuck is Justin Bieber?"
    • "Goodbye to Romance" was written about his former bandmates in Black Sabbath.
  • Theme Naming \ Pun-Based Title: Blizzard of Ozz, The Ozzman Cometh, and Ozzmosis. Diary of a Madman could count as well.
  • The Tyson Zone: There have been so many strange stories involving Ozzy over the decades that almost nothing is unbelievable when it comes to him. He's snorted ants like cocaine while on tour with Mötley Crüe, bit the head off both a bat and a dove, pissed on the Alamo, tried to strangle his wife, and much, much more.
  • Villain Song: "Mr. Tinkertrain" can be considered this, being about a sexual predator who preys on children.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
    • Ironically, not with bats. It's rats that drive him crazy.
    • It's shown in the History Channel's Ozzy & Jack's World Detour (a travelogue show starring Ozzy and his son Jack) that Ozzy also has a pretty big fear of riding in helicopters. Jack eventually got him on one to survey Mount Rushmore, but you could practically feel Ozzy clenching his butt while they were up there.
  • You Are Not Alone: "Lay Your World On Me" from Black Rain, written for Sharon after her cancer diagnosis.

    Give me your pain, give me your anger
    Let me be your rock
    I can be the pillar of strength that you need
    I'll help you keep it all together
    It's better late than never
    Lay your world on me
    I can take the weight

All my life, I've been over the top
I don't know where I'm going; all I know is I don't wanna stop