(Credits: Paramount Plus)
Sat 31 January 2026 16:10, UK
Any rock band that had the chance to go out on the road with Ozzy Osbourne back in the day would have been shaking in their boots.
Compared to every other rock and roll heavyweight, ‘The Prince of Darkness’ seemed to be one of the wildest men in the business, and there was no telling whether he was going to sing the best show that you’ve ever heard or come roaring out of the gates like a rabid dog. But behind the scenes, ‘The Ozzman’ was the kind of sweetheart that managed to get a little bit spooked by some of the bands he helped inspire back in the day.
You wouldn’t get that from listening to his records, though. From the minute that people heard that opening thunderclap on the first Black Sabbath record, Osbourne was the fixture of everything dark about rock and roll, and with lyrics about being pulled down to Hell by a demon, it wasn’t hard to see why he wasn’t every parent’s favourite singer. Then again, that was always a bit of an act whenever Osbourne performed.
He did have a lot of destructive tendencies, but by the time he began working with Sharon on his solo career, he had a good sense of when to keep things in check. Was he all about the clean living lifestyle? Hell no, but it’s not like he was going to be stumbling around and barely making it to the stage every single time he had to play a show, like during the tail end of his Sabbath days.
But even if Blizzard of Ozz got the ball rolling for his solo career, there was a lot more competition for him to deal with now. Thousands of bands had come up in Sabbath’s wake to play heavier music, but when the frontman arrived in Los Angeles, there was something different going on. Van Halen had broken down the doors for party bands, and in between the glamorous side of glam rock and the embers of punk sat Mötley Crüe.
None of the members of the band claimed to be the greatest musicians in the world, but Nikki Sixx had a plan to get them to world domination. Their story was the stuff of rock and roll legend, and even if most of it made them look like either assholes or absolute lunatics half the time, Osbourne saw enough potential to take the gamble when having them out on tour when they were promoting Shout at the Devil.
Then again, Osbourne was a little bit leery of what he was getting himself into. If he knew what the band were capable of when partying, he was terrified of what was going to happen for months on end on the road, saying, “The most dangerous one I ever did personally was my solo tour with Mötley Crüe in the 80s. Fucking hell, it was nuts. We were like pirates. I said to my tour manager, ‘Fucking hell, one of us is gonna die on this tour.’”
And it’s not like the rest of their crew didn’t take that into account. The new kids might have liked to throw down, but in between stories about Osbourne and Sixx licking up each other’s urine during their offdays and snorting live ants, Vince Neil’s manslaughter charge only added to their reputation as the kind of band that would become way too dangerous to have around after one too many drinks.
Osbourne may have pivoted towards even heavier acts when he worked with Metallica later down the line, but the stories Mötley Crüe endured are the kind that a screenwriter would call too unrealistic if they were presented with them in a movie script. It may have been fun while it lasted, but had they not gone their separate ways when they did, Osbourne probably wouldn’t have made it long enough to play his final concert in 2025.
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