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Ozzy Osbourne Turns 72: Relive His Highlights From a Collab with Post Malone to a Country Cover of ‘Crazy Train’

Ozzy Osbourne has had quite the year.

Between hitting 70-year-old to turning 72 today, the rock legend has had his full share of awe-worthy performances and moments.

It appears that Osbourne has no intention of letting his age slow him down any time soon.

Post Malone and Osbourne

In September of 2019, Osbourne and rapper Post Malone performed together. The song was “Take What You Want” off Malone’s “Hollywood’s Bleedings” album.

The performance starts with Osbourne on-stage alone singing. You can hear the faint echo of fans chanting “Ozzy” over the starting strumming of guitars. Osbourne is singing the opening lines of the song on a throne in the middle of a dark stage.

Post Malone then appears in a pink suit with bats all over it. He helps Osbourne out of the chair as the two step into the lights of the stage. Ozzy, clad in all black (obviously), has the widest smile on his face as he hypes up Malone singing.

Clearly, the duet with Malone was one of Osbourne’s highlights this year as well.

Ozzy Osbourne and Elton John

Osbourne also collaborated with Elton John in “Ordinary Man” in March.

The video for the song helps showcase all the memories that come from creating music and being in the industry for over 50 years. It features Ozzy sitting in a home theater watching a projection of these moments. At times it will show him tearing up or staring absently at the screen.

It shows the ups and downs and hundreds of videos and pictures from Osbourne’s historic life. Many fans sometimes jokingly question if he’s mortal due to his strength and perseverance.

Not only was he an icon in the ’70s when he was in his 20s, but he’s an icon now in the 2020s in his 70s. He even announced tour dates for 2022.

“Yes, I’ve been a bad guy / Been higher than the blue sky /And the truth is I don’t wanna die an ordinary man /I’ve made momma cry /Don’t know why I’m still alive / Yes, the truth is I don’t wanna die an ordinary man.”

Osbourne has proven he is far from ordinary.

Is Osbourne Going Country?

“Not me, thank you.”

The legendary “Prince of Darkness” shot down this question with Rolling Stone pretty quickly. The rocker, while many others have explored the country genre recently, has no intentions of doing so himself.

The interview was happening right around when Black Sabbath was doing their farewell tour in 2016.

In response to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler making the transition, Osbourne said, “…it would be absurd for me to do that. I don’t mind country, but the ‘Prince of Darkness’ with a cowboy hat? I’m a rock ‘n’ roller, not a f—ing country bumpkin.”

So don’t expect any of the legendary rockers’ remaining tunes to be at all country.

However, the group Country Road Entertainment, posted a YouTube video in 2018 that was exploring if their group Hillbilly Deluxe could turn Osbourne’s song “Crazy Train” into a hillbilly country song.

The band pulled out their banjos, tattered cowboy hats, and jean shorts to perform the cover.

The song became an upbeat, twangy, hard-to-understand-the-lyrics kind of song. They did succeed in turning it into a country song. However, different fans would probably argue over whether it was good or not.

The Ongoing Life of Ozzy

From his rise in fame in the ’70s as the frontman in Black Sabbath to his own solo career in the late 70s to being a reality star, Osbourne has done it all.

Black Sabbath was known for using religious symbolism and dark mythic themes in their music, which caused them to be a sometimes controversial group.

“Throughout the 1980s, Osbourne continued to cultivate the image of the troubled loner and angry rebel, with his antisocial theatrics contributing to his public notoriety. Among his antics, he showered his audiences with raw meat and bit the head off a live bat onstage. Not everyone found his persona and dark music so appealing, and he was frequently singled out by religious conservatives who hoped to demonstrate the negative impacts of rock music on society,” according to Biography.com.

Black Sabbath fell apart after Osbourne’s steady use of drugs and alcohol as well as the increase in punk rock popularity. This is what led Osbourne to fulfill a solo career.

The singer struggled with his own demons. One particular sadness was his wife Sharon being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005. Osbourne also was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, yet a few days later he still went on to perform with Post Malone. He also lived a childhood of poverty and spend some time in prison.

Along the way, despite the controversy, the hate, the mistakes, and the love, Ozzy definitely made a lot of memories. He also racked up more than enough awards. For a full compilation of all his awards and nominations, visit here.

With 2020 taking the lives of many iconic figures, seeing Osbourne thriving is an endearing feeling.