oz e?

i’m not quite sure where to begin this…

…i guess we’ll go back as early as we can – the lockhart intermediate school.

(absolutely ZERO names have been changed in this bit)

as an adult, in his mid-fifties (fuck, that hurt to write, but not as much as my knees hurt at 7am), i can see that ray edwards and james hilsher (sorry if i spelled that wrong) had infinitely less responsible but infinitely cooler parents than i did. in sixth grade, they came to school wearing shirts that looked like this…

the severed head of ozzy? cut off by an executioner with a cross? it backed up everything you’d heard in small (christian) texas towns – that man was the epitome of evil. fuck all that, i was better off with my kenny rogers and j geils band records.

but then came miki visage.

i think she might have had a crush on my buddy todd krause. their brothers, steve and david were friends, and we were in her basement one summer evening. houses with basements were rare as fuck in our town, but she lived in a nice red brick fortress on state park road basically just past the end zone of what would later become the stadium where the varsity lockhart lions played. she brought down two of her older brother steve’s records for us to listen to, and i insisted on recording them on two certron branded blank cassettes (three pack for ninety-seven cents at wal-mart back then) – cheech & chong’s greatest hits (still marginally funny, but not really funny) and ozzy osbourne, blizzard of ozz. it was the summer of 1983 – the album had been out for a couple of years at that point, but i’d never heard it due to texas methodist upbringing. he was evil – sacrificed doves and bats and puppies and shit at his concerts. or so i’d been told.

but from the opening chords of “i don’t know” i was there…and by the time “crazy train” kicked in there was no turning back.

it wasn’t evil. it was just…fuckin’ good. i think it kick started my “heavy metal phase” for the next couple of years, before i discovered new wave and punk and such. it was my gateway drug to non-commerically applauded music, and forty-something years later that’s still were i lean. if the trends for what sells matches my taste, cool. if not? i could give a fuck – i like what i like.

i’m forever jealous of my buddy and old radio partner chuck stanley. he got to be part of the ozzy lore by hosting him in san antonio back in the 1990’s when he formally apologized for the whole alamo thing and got to play in san antonio again.

(i’ll quickly note, he went back, yet again, as part of the show he did with jack (i believe on the history channel), and that’s the footage that’s out there when you google it, but chuck did his thing way before that).

i’ve seen him four times, and as a proud texan who knew what happened and, more importantly, knew where it actually went down (hint – there are old walls that are literal BLOCKS away from this…

…that still count as “the alamo”), which is where it took place. all four times i saw him were in san antonio (the first one, with free tickets courtesy of chuckles, at the ALAMOdome).

i was ozzitized (baptized by ozzy by being soaked in a bucket of water he has just plunged his head into) back in 2002, the second time i saw him. all the shows were great. three of them were ozzfests, with the last one being the scream tour. as i sit and type this i’m wearing an outkast shirt, but the last four days were all ozzy attire (and tomorrow will probabaly be as well since i have one t-shirt left). if you never saw him it sucks to be you – he put on a great show, and i kinda wish i’d seen him more often, although i have great memories of when i did.

the world is a little darker (not in a good way) and the bats can sleep a little easier (in a good way) now he’s gone, and while i never got to actually meet him in person (i’ll always regret that, although i can’t recall any genuine missed oppurtunities like i had with maynard james keenan or metallica) i’ll always treasure my ozzy moments. he was a good guy, ozzy was (as he’d have phrased it in his autobiography), and we’re all better for having had him around. rest in power, my good man – i’ll plan on naming the next pit ozzy in tribute (although nik might veto me because she can).