Ozzy Osbourne mourned by Winnipeg music fans

CTV’s Danton Unger speak with fans of the Prince of Darkness, and the impact his music had on their lives.

Music fans around the world, including in Winnipeg, are in mourning following the death of Ozzy Osbourne on Tuesday.

Osbourne, one of the founding members of Black Sabbath and a successful solo artist who helped popularize heavy metal music, died Tuesday at the age of 76, weeks after his final concert. Osbourne had been dealing with health problems, including Parkinson’s disease and emphysema, in recent years.

David MacLean has been a fan of Osbourne since he was a teenager and was saddened to learn of his death.

“It was just a tremendous blow, and I’m still feeling kind of down about it, to tell you the truth,” he said.

Mike Holmes also got into Osbourne as a teenager through his father, who was a fan of Black Sabbath.

“I think it was mainly because I was really into Metallica, and I know he was a big influence on them, and then also just because of how popular he was and well-known he was through his reality show,” he said.

MacLean managed to get tickets for Osbourne’s 2003 performance at the Winnipeg Arena. However, the morning of the show, his mother died from cancer.

“I wasn’t going to go, but I had an uncle tell me to go to the concert, and I went to the concert. And I swear to God, ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ hit a little differently than it usually does, you know. And it was incredible.”

Osbourne would typically end his concerts by telling the audience he loved them before walking off the stage, a moment that hit harder for MacLean.

“He had no idea that there was a 14-year-old kid who had lost his mom, and he was saving his life that night. But that’s the essence of rock and roll.”

Holmes saw Osbourne and Black Sabbath several times when they rolled through Winnipeg and said he put on a great show. He recalled one concert in 2010 that stayed with him.

“He had a big fire hose up on stage, and during the solo of ‘Crazy Train,’ he picked it up and started blasting everybody in the first couple rows with foam and throwing buckets of water at them,” he said. “I was just always blown away by how much energy he could bring to a show, even though, from outward appearances, sometimes he didn’t look like he had the most energy in the world.”

In the wake of Osbourne’s death, his music has been flying off the shelves at Into the Music, a Winnipeg record store.

“We saw it with people like Prince, and we saw it with Bowie and Michael Jackson as well, that there was a kind of frenzy or craziness in the last first few months,” owner Greg Tonn said, noting that suppliers across the country are selling out of copies of Osbourne’s music.

Tonn noted in the past day, people have been coming in and sharing memories of Osbourne, noting that Winnipeg is a rock city where his music resonates with many people.

“There’s like a deep sadness and remorse for an icon in the field of heavy metal,” he said.

Tonn added, “I think that this cuts deep for a lot of people, and it’s created some really interesting and touching responses.”

Osbourne’s death comes as other influential musicians from the 1960s and 1970s, most recently Connie Francis and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, have passed away in recent years.

“The rock stars and the idols and the icons have really been dying off, and no one has really been stepping into their place,” MacLean said. “That’s kind of a scary thing, being a musician myself. Who is going to take the reins?”

Ozzy Osbourne in Winnipeg

The earliest known instance of Osbourne playing in Winnipeg was when Black Sabbath played Winnipeg in 1971 at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Osbourne first played Winnipeg as a solo artist in 1981 and played in the city several times through the years, both as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath.

His last appearance in Winnipeg was in 2016 with Black Sabbath on their reunion tour.