I haven’t written a blog post in over a week thanks to my crazy busy work/life schedule. This is something I wanted to write for a while but I think it’s gonna be long. I suck at typing so it’s probably gonna take me twice as long if not three times as long as somebody who can type properly.

In 1996 I got to meet the man I was named after, John Michael Osborne, better known to the world as Ozzy. I’ve been an Ozzy Osbourne fan since I first heard the song Iron Man, which was the theme music of the wrestling tag team, the Road Warriors. I went on a hunt to find the song not knowing who sang it, what the band name was, or anything. I just knew the name of the song was Iron Man. I was visiting with my grandmother in Maine, and we went to Kmart. I was looking through the Music section looking at every audio cassette looking for one that had a song called Iron Man on it. Finally, a worker came up and asked if he could help me find something. I told him I was looking for a song called Iron Man. He told me it was by Ozzy Osbourne and showed me the Tribut to Randy Rhoads album.

OK two quick notes about this.

1. Iron Man was actually done by the band Black Sabbath who Ozzy was the singer for.

2. Randy Rhoads was Ozzy’s guitarist who died in a plane crash in 1982 at just 25 years old.

Ozzy Osbourne & Randy Rhoads - Tribute album

OK back to the story.

When we got back to my grandmother's house, I couldn’t wait to play this tape. To make a long story short, I loved Iron Man and EVERY song on the album. I ended up buying every Ozzy Osbourne album and then every Black Sabbath album. Ozzy has the greatest and most unique voice I’d ever heard and the crazy stories you’d hear about him were just insane. Summer true summer made up and somewhere somewhere in the middle but either way, his public persona back in the 80s was completely different then the bumbling “shot unit” character you’d see in the early 2000’s on the Osbournes.

Fast forward to 1996 where I was friends with a local DJ, who’s radio station was sponsoring Ozzy’s Concert that night I got backstage passes and went on the search. This was 1996 before he had crazy crazy security, and you could actually get access to him. I peaked my head in his dressing room and he was just sitting there. He saw me peeking in and said, “hey man come on in”. I was completely starstruck, The room was spinning. I felt like I was really hot. I was breaking out in a sweat. It was surreal. I was, to use an old wrestling term, “marking out” big time.

Davey Boy Smith - Lou Albano - Ozzy & The Dynamite Kid

He asked me if I worked for the radio station, and I told him I was a pro wrestler. He said he did some things with pro wrestling for the WWE. Like a crazy person, I interrupted him and said, “Yes Wrestlemania 2, April 2, 1986 Chicago, Illinois you came out with the British Bulldogs and Captain Lou Albano”. I don’t remember exactly what he said next but he must’ve thought I was crazy. He proceeded to tell me he had just watched pro wrestling in his hotel room earlier that day. Turned out it was ECW. He told me he liked the guy in the pajamas. I thought he meant the Sandman and asked if he was drinking beer and smoking a cigarette. He said, no this guy was going through tables. I said oh do you mean Sabu? He said. “Yeah that’s him. Sabu, he’s a sick fuck. I was then shuffled out of there by somebody but mission accomplished. Lol. The next day I called Sabu and told him and Ozzy Osbourne thinks he’s a sick fuck. Sabu said, “Fuck yeah, right on”.

Sabu

It’s a shame with all the medical issues Ozzy has had over the past couple years he was forced to cancel his final tour after numerous postponements. His touring career didn’t finish out the way he wanted but he’s put out 2 incredible albums since 2020.

2020 - Ordinary Man
2023 - Patient Number 9

I was fortunate enough to see him one last time on his no more tours to tour and actually got in the front row. He sounded great that night and if it turns out that it was the last time I get to see him perform live, it was the perfect “goodbye”.

Oh, by the way, I’m not really named after Ozzy. My name IS John Michael but my mom can’t stand him and it makes her crazy when I say it. lol

Thanks for reading.

-Mikey-
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