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From UNC Greensboro: A Statement on the Death of Ozzy Osbourne Heavy Metal Icon Led a Remarkable Life, Career Greensboro, N.C. (July 22, 2025) – Dr. Guy Capuzzo, a UNCG professor in the School of Music who has been a metalhead since 1980, reflects on the death of heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne. Dr. Capuzzo will teach a class on the musical and cultural ramifications of heavy metal music in fall 2025. The first thing to acknowledge about Ozzy Osbourne is that when he got kicked out of Black Sabbath in 1979, everybody thought it was curtains for this guy. He was a drunk – that’s why he got kicked out of the band – and no one took him seriously as a vocalist, musician, or songwriter. He was known for drugs and alcohol, and the outrageous things he did. When he released his first solo album, “Blizzard of Oz” in 1980 – I experienced this in real time – the entire heavy metal world was like, This guy has totally beaten the odds. That was the beginning of a hugely successful solo career that no one had anticipated. Even if he had stopped making music after he got kicked out of Sabbath, he would have been a legend. But in his solo career throughout the 1980s and into the ’90s he just completely beat the odds in writing another chapter for himself. He was great, and he has 40 years of music to back it up. The other thing that’s astounding is not just that he had this legendary career with Black Sabbath in the 1970s and not just that he defied the odds by forging a remarkable career as a solo artist. Remember that in the 1980s, the era of the Parents Resource Music Center, a group that mandated “parental advisory” warnings on rock albums they deemed problematic, Ozzy was like Public Enemy No. 1. Parents wanted to ban his concerts; people thought he was a Satanist. In 1982 he was banned from performing in San Antonio for 10 years after urinating on a memorial at the Alamo. Then in the early aughts, along comes “The Osbournes,” the reality TV show, and suddenly Ozzy has this third career as a reality TV star. This guy who was Public Enemy No. 1 became a pop-culture phenomenon: a cuddly, confused old man. He completely changed the public perception of him. No one would ever have predicted that this guy would have done so many things that defied expectations. It’s truly remarkable. The longevity of his career, the success with Black Sabbath, as a solo artist, and as a reality TV star – he could be proud to have achieved any one of these things. But he achieved all of them. Not many celebrities have that kind of staying power. — Dr. Guy Capuzzo Dr. Capuzzo is available for interview. G_CAPUZZ@uncg.edu
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