1182. Ozzy Osbourne / Speak of the Devil [Live]. 1982. 4.5/5

The fall and rise of Ozzy Osbourne during the years collating the late 1970’s and early 1980’s is one that we have covered a little already on this podcast. There are amazing accounts out there from former bandmates who have documented not only how difficult Ozzy could be to work with due to his vices, and how difficult his management team could be to work with.
Following on from the “Diary of a Madman” album and subsequent tour, the decision had been made by Ozzy and his management (ok, Sharon) that they would do an album focused purely on the songs of Ozzy’s first band, Black Sabbath. There were reasons stated for wanting to do it, which included that the previous publishing deal had now come to an end, which meant that by recording Sabbath songs all of the writers of those songs (which of course included Ozzy) would then reap the profits. It would also serve as a way of getting out of their current record deal in an easier fashion than writing another one or two albums to do so. What to me has always seemed to be the main reason, however, was that the current lineup of Black Sabbath had announced that they were putting together a live album themselves – without Ozzy on it – and there seems little doubt that this had created some angst for the previous lead singer of that band. And it always felt to me that in deciding to go down this path, especially when the band had just released two critically acclaimed albums that they could build upon, that the ONLY reason for it could be ego, and that Ozzy wanted to prove that he was the original and best.
Whichever way you want to look at the reasoning behind it, the tour and album almost didn’t eventuate anyway. When Ozzy announced to his then bandmates about the idea of playing a tour and releasing a live album of completely Black Sabbath material, the band as one revolted. Guitarist Randy Rhoads and drummer Tommy Aldridge both out and out refused to play on it. Both had already expressed their reluctance to play the Sabbath songs that were in their Ozzy sets, as neither felt as though they had anything in common with the style of music those songs sat in. Bass guitarist Rudy Sarzo, though not so adamant about it all, still stuck with his fellow bandmates. This caused Ozzy to go off in a drunken rage, apparently firing all three, but then the next day not remembering that he had done it. Eventually the three agreed to participate, though it is reported that this contributed heavily to Randy making the decision that he would leave the band once it was completed. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, Randy was killed in the accident of the light plane and the bus he was sleeping in, so we will never know what would have happened in that respect.
In order to move forward, Bernie Torme initially took on the guitaring role, but it was Brad Gillis, who was then working on the debut album for his band Night Ranger – an episode posted just recently on this podcast – who came in to take on the role for this live album, one that was still full of problems as they reached the recording phase.

Just to further complicate just how this album came about, imagine being the band – Sarzo, Aldridge and Gillis – and being asked to get together for rehearsals for the upcoming concerts, but being told that the lead singer wouldn’t be attending. I mean, how would you go about processing that? This is what the band was told, that Ozzy wouldn’t be attending rehearsals. They had five days to learn the songs and get them up to speed for a live recording. Which, they then did, apart from three – Iron Man, Children of the Grave and Paranoid – because they were told that earlier recordings of those songs with Randy on guitar would be used on the album. Ozzy didn’t show up until the soundcheck for the first of two shows being recorded, at The Ritz in New York, a club that held up to 1000 people. And, much like Ozzy, even at this point of his career, he had trouble remembering the lyrics. So, for both sold out performances, Ozzy had a chair at the front of the stage, with a book full of lyrics propped up on it, where he planted himself for most of the gigs, reading the lyrics off the pages. The guitarists also had to locate themselves closer to the drum riser to hear the drums as the monitors usually used were not available. And THEN, when they finally reached the time to play the three songs that were not going to be used for the actual album, the band loosened up and showed less care and precision, because they knew that these songs at least would not appear. That was, of course, until the decision was made to retain the Randy live versions for a possible release down the track (the afore-published episode on the “Tribute” album can be heard in season 2 of this podcast) and the band management indeed decided to use these versions, something that displeased Sarzo, Aldridge and Gillis. It was at this time that both Sarzo, who had been recording the Quiet Riot album “Metal Health” in secret at the time, and Gillis, who had been recording “Dawn Patrol” with Night Ranger, left the Osbourne camp to return to their other bands. The band had also recorded an extra day with no audience, to cover all bases in case of any audio trouble form the two gigs done live. All in all, apart from being quite the ordeal, the story seems almost Spinal Tap-ish in retelling. There is even more expansion of these stories, and to know it all it is worth checking out Rudy Sarzo’s autobiography “Off the Rails”, which really lifts the lid on an epic period of music history.

One of the really amazing parts of the Black Sabbath history was the lack of a truly representative live album. Sure, “Live at Last” was released in 1980, but without the band’s input or real knowledge. This was somewhat rectified with the “Past Lives” release in 2002 that utilised that material and other historical live recordings. There was “Cross Purposes Live” in 1995 with Tony Martin. And the “Reunion” live album in 1998 had all but Bill ward back in the saddle, but it was way beyond their prime.
And then we had “Live Evil” which was released a month after this album, with Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, doing songs of both Mark I and II of the band. And that is a great live album – look out for that episode a very episodes after this one.
What I guess I’m getting around to is that, at the time, this album was your best bet to hear Ozzy singing all these classic Sabbath songs live on an album, and so even despite the torment behind getting it up and running, I always enjoyed it. I enjoyed the addition of Brad Gillis’s iconic guitar sound on these songs, and both Tommy and Rudy are terrific players. These versions sound great, and Ozzy sounds great if not a little unhinged between songs with his banter.
It wasn’t until four years after this was released that I came across it, and ironically also “Live Evil”, so I did the same thing as fans would have done on its release – compared it to each other. And I don’t really favour one against the other. They both have their charms, they both have their very slight downturns. It may have been a strange move at the time given the burgeoning success of his new material after leaving Black Sabbath, but it didn’t seem to upset the fans. To be honest, the retrospective look back of live material in recent years on the Deluxe Edition re-releases of some of Sabbath’s greatest albums, which have entire live gigs from that time, is a much better showcasing of Black Sabbath the band in their live days. But this album showcases Ozzy and his bandmates at their time, in 1982, and in that respect this album is still a fun listen, and worthy of many singalong moments of these great songs.