Ozzy Osbourne speaks onstage throughout the 2024 Rock & Roll Corridor Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Oct. 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photos North America
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Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photos North America
Rock ‘n’ roll legend and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne died earlier this week at age 76.
He was an enigmatic determine recognized for a lot of issues – being a forefather of heavy steel, biting the top off a bat onstage and dramatically screaming his spouse’s titleSharon, on the small display.
However he additionally had an unmistakable look: tiny, spherical sun shades; darkish, shoulder-length hair; a cane, a coat and a cross pendant necklace.
And very similar to with music and tv, he dug a stake into the world of vogue over a few years.
Osbourne’s first half of vogue
In 1968, Osbourne, together with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Invoice Ward fashioned a blues band, Earth Blues Firm. Rock within the Nineteen Seventies nonetheless had sturdy parts of the style’s beginnings in funk, blues and soul, obvious within the works of musicians corresponding to Jimi Hendrix, The Stooges and Cream, stated Martin Popoff, a heavy steel historian.
Butler prompt the band begin making music that seemed like horror flicks, and Black Sabbath was born in 1970, in keeping with the band’s web site. However bands’ aesthetics had been nonetheless characterised by the hippie and “flower energy” look of that decade — handlebar mustaches, bell bottoms, deep V-cut shirts and fringe.
“Of their vogue sense, on their album covers, they had been simply form of like a general-looking kind of band, form of like all people was,” Popoff stated.
However even when following traits, Osbourne managed to face out. For instance, his platform boots had been sparkly (which he would later name one in all his vogue fake pas). He was typically shirtless on stage. Bryan Rolli, a music journalist, factors to the duvet of Black Sabbath’s 1975 album Sabotage, by which Osbourne’s bandmates have on jackets and trousers. Then, all the way in which to the correct is Osbourne.
“Ozzy has this massive, ornate gown on, with this loopy sample that appears like an vintage rug or one thing.”
Popoff stated, “What Ozzy establishes within the ’70s is this concept that Ozzy is so cool and such a central level of this massive band, Black Sabbath…that no matter he chooses as a vogue assertion onstage, basically turns into cool.”
Because the themes in his music acquired darker, so did his garments. There was additionally an even bigger emphasis on vogue amongst musicians, with the launch of MTV in 1981, Popoff stated. Osbourne started experimenting along with his hair within the early a part of the last decade, together with perming it and shaving it off.
Across the launch of his fourth solo album, The Final Sin in 1986, Osbourne’s model started brightening up a bit, drawing ire from audiences. He went blonde, started toying with make-up and wore numerous sequins.
“He goes full on Liberace dressing like a Christmas tree, hair steel for a short while,” Popoff stated. “And that is the stage the place folks accuse him of trying like (comic) Phyllis Diller or any person’s grandmother or aunt.”
By the late ’80s and ’90s, Osbourne joined his rock band friends in adopting components of the grunge look.
“There’s much more black being launched into what they’re sporting, however they’re nonetheless attempting to look form of elegant and expensive-looking,” Popoff stated.
The Ozzy Osbourne “uniform”
Within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, the quintessential Ozzy Osbourne wardrobe was born.
He goes goth. He adopts small, spherical glasses akin to John Lennon. He carries a cane. He’s typically in all black, topped with an overcoat. He wears chunky, silver jewellery, together with cross pendants that his father, a toolmaker, handcrafted for him.
He caught with that look, kind of, till his dying. Popoff and Rolli say they don’t seem to be utterly certain why his model settled there, however they’ve their theories.
“That is actually when Ozzy developed that sound and picture that had been not tied to a selected second,” Rolli stated. “It was like, that is the Ozzy that folks will consider on a regular basis.”
In 2002, The Osbournes premiered on MTV, showcasing the ups and downs of Osbourne, his spouse, Sharon, and two of their youngsters, Kelly and Jack. It gained an Emmy for greatest actuality program in its first yr and, at its peak, drew in virtually 7 million viewers, in keeping with Billboard.
“Possibly (his staple look) had one thing to do with The Osbournes present, the place you are pondering branding in an enormous means,” Popoff stated.
Mainstream tradition largely perceived Osbourne as a satan worshipper, in keeping with Popoff. (“He was virtually extra fearful of Devil than something,” he stated.) However the actuality collection confirmed a softer, extra relatable aspect of Osbourne – peeled all the way down to T-shirts, jerseys and sweatpants.
“Below that, you possibly can nonetheless see he is coated in tattoos,” Rolli stated. “He is nonetheless acquired the loopy hair, with any variety of extensions or dreads or dyed bits in it. And it is like yeah, you possibly can gown that down as a lot as you need, but it surely’s nonetheless Ozzy Osbourne under there.”
