Ozzy Osbourne was certainly one of very, only a few heavy metallic icons who truly crossed over into the mainstream. As beloved as he was by metalheads for his pioneering work with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, others fell in love with him for his chaotic roles in The Osbournes and different movie, TV and even gaming properties. So, following the Birmingham legend’s tragic passing on the age of 76, it’s essential not simply to recollect his musical achievements, but in addition his most famed extracurricular ones. Beneath, Hammer has compiled the best onscreen cameos that the wizard of Ozz made throughout his unimaginable profession.
Trick Or Deal with (1986)
Charles Martin Smith’s semi-obscure supernatural slasher capitalised on the paranoia round rock music throughout the ‘satanic panic’. That includes cameos from Gene Simmons and Ozzy, it was a few younger metalhead known as Eddie, who turned possessed by the vengeful spirit of his favorite rock star following the musician’s mysterious dying. A soundtrack by Fastway, which featured former members of Motörhead, and posters of Judas Priest, Anthrax and extra proved the filmmakers did their homework, however Ozzy’s cameo confirmed a next-level understanding of heavy music.
Throughout a handful of scenes, Ozzy appeared as a TV preacher, proselytising about how rock’n’roll was corrupting America’s brains and calling the music a “illness”. Getting Black Sabbath’s singer, of all individuals, to cameo as an ethical grand-stander preaching shallow notions of ethical superiority was an ideal pinch of irony. And Ozzy’s all-guns-blazing efficiency made it even higher.
We’re unsure that this can be a ‘cameo’ per se, however Ozzy’s look throughout The Decline Of Western Civilization, Half II has entertained metalheads for many years now, and it might be against the law to disregard it. Penelope Spheeris’ rock doc, the sequel to her 1981 unpicking of L.A. punk, depicted the conflict then consuming West Coast metallic: for each band in it for the music and rise up, there was one other merely chasing girl, medication and superstar.
In between, Spheeris interviewed such heavyweights as Lemmy Kilmister and Paul Stanley. Ozzy’s phase, nonetheless, has outlived all the pieces else. He mentioned rock’n’roll hedonism whereas making breakfast in his PJ’s, full with a now-legendary second the place he pours orange juice and fully misses the glass. The shot was (sadly) faux, however why let the reality get in the best way of fine enjoyable?
South Park: Chef Assist (1998)
The arrival of the touring extravaganza Ozzfest within the mid-Nineteen Nineties revived curiosity in Ozzy’s profession and made him the unintentional herald of the nu metallic era. With that renaissance got here an entire new slew of pop-culture cameos, one of many earliest and largest was his look on South Park.
Ozzy solely confirmed up within the episode Chef Assist briefly, performing as a part of a charity live performance for the character Chef after he misplaced a authorized battle, however stole the present. He supplied a comedic anecdote about Chef’s obvious affect on his profession, revealing that he misconstrued his recommendation to “purchase a pompadour hat” as “chunk the top off a bat”. He then decapitates Kenny for no good purpose. The double-O additionally deserves credit score for singing on an unique track for the episode, entitled Vapor Path (Nowhere To Run).
Little Nicky (2000)
Little Nicky was a movie the place Adam Sandler served as each star and govt producer. Very like each different movie the place Adam Sandler has served as each star and govt producer, it was absolute dogshit. Nonetheless, Ozzy’s shock look at this ‘comedy’s’ climax truly proved to be hilarious.
Ozzy’s cameo is about up by the villain of the movie – Rhys Ifans’ Adrian, the inheritor to Hell – turning himself right into a bat to dispatch his child brother, Sandler’s titular protagonist. To conquer the baddie, Nicky smashes a mysterious orb, from which the Prince Of Darkness emerges and proceeds to comply with his pure intuition of biting the top off the closest flying mammal. Arguably even higher is the bit the place Nicky must die to return to his dwelling in Hell, so Ozzy returns out of the blue and casually arms him a large slab of stone.
Late Evening With Conan O’Brien (2001)
Shortly after September 11, Late Evening visionary and low-key mega-metalhead Conan O’Brien aired a skit the place he tried to carry the spirits of his nervous and dispirited manufacturing employees. Naturally, who higher to assist with that than the Prince Of Darkness himself?
Ozzy could have been introduced in to calm the stress in Conan’s workplace, however all the pieces he did, he did with the unfiltered mouth and endearing cluelessness that made the singer a actuality TV phenomenon one 12 months later. Within the area of six minutes, he supplied somebody a neck rub solely to unintentionally strangle them, stared intensely at a dove in a cage, and screamed Loopy Prepare at a fan down the telephone solely to neglect the phrases half a verse in. An underrated testomony to each Ozzy’s self-awareness and Conan’s expertise at pushing any bit to its fullest potential.
Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002)
Boobs! In early 2002, Ozzy and his household have been newfound actuality TV stars, the primary sequence of their programme The Osbournes having change into the most-watched factor in MTV historical past. The producers of the third Austin Powers – already a cameo-rich affair that includes such giants as Steven Spielberg, Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Cruise – struck whereas the iron was sizzling, dashing the singer, Sharon, Kelly and Jack in for a joke the place a satellite tv for pc resembling a pair of titties received pulled in direction of Earth.
Ozzy and co.’s contribution noticed the godfather of metallic shout “boobs!” at his TV, adopted by the reveal that he wasn’t speaking in regards to the busty area object, however in truth chastising the filmmakers for recycling a gag from the earlier movies, the place a rocket resembled a wang. Though it wasn’t Shakespeare, it was brilliantly random and re-solidified Osbourne’s standing as a mainstream image.
Brütal Legend (2009)
Gaming’s most reverent love-letter to heavy metallic (sure, much more so than Guitar Hero!), Brütal Legend turned the participant into Eddie Riggs: a guitar-wielding, demon-hunting roadie voiced by Jack Black. Getting the frontman of Tenacious D to quip whereas racking up a kill depend in a fiery hellscape would have been metallic sufficient, however developer Double Superb went all-out, rounding out the voice solid with the likes of Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford and Lita Ford.
The holy grail of onerous rock royalty, our favorite Prince Of Darkness, additionally had a job within the recreation. He each voiced and lent his likeness to the ‘Guardian Of Steel’: the legendary determine Eddie turned to for upgrades and exposition. Ozzy received some cracking strains in addition, probably one of the best being a nonchalant and brilliantly Brummie-sounding, “You’ve received some demon flesh in your bumper.”
