“As far as the media goes, heavy music isn’t popular” Ozzy Osbourne thinks the mainstream press is ignoring the massive popularity of metal
Despite record-breaking sales and sold-out stadiums, Ozzy Osbourne says heavy music is still being sidelined by the media – just as it was when Black Sabbath first started.
“As far as the media goes, heavy music isn’t popular,” laments the Price of Darkness in the new issue of MusicWeek. “It’s never been that popular with the media, though I think the 1980s was the closest it ever got. The media doesn’t write that there’s an absolute resurgence for this music right now, with bands headlining stadiums all over the world.”
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And he may have a point. In recent years, acts like Sleep Token and Ghost have topped charts on both sides of the Atlantic, pulling millions of monthly listeners and packing out arenas. Ozzy himself has sold over 100 million albums, won multiple Grammys (including one as recently as 2023), and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ivors Academy in 2015.
Still, metal rarely makes front-page news.
“They never get written about because it’s not in vogue right now,” Osbourne says. “They focus on all the girls [pop stars] out there. I’m not taking anything away from them, as they’re there for a totally different audience and great at what they do, but it’s just like a box of dolls, very cookie cutter. Meanwhile, these bands – heavy bands – have always been the bastards of the music industry.”
Osbourne’s wife and longtime manager Sharon echoes the sentiment, noting that Black Sabbath’s musical efforts were rarely appreciated by critics, even back in 1970.
“You’ve got to remember, this is a band that started in the ‘60s – and they’re still here,” she says. “A lot of the bands who started in the ‘60s are no longer alive, or operating as they used to.”
She points to Rolling Stone’s infamous review of the band’s 1970 self-titled debut, written by music critic Lester Bangs, who dismissed the record as “a shuck”.
“And that was just the first album!” She laughs. “[Sabbath] stood up to everything that was thrown at them for being different. They just kept their mouths shut and just toured and toured and toured, and never gave up.”
Their perseverance has clearly paid off: Black Sabbath’s farewell show, Back To The Beginning, sold out in under 16 minutes earlier this year, with more than 150,000 fans scrambling in the virtual queue on Valentine’s Day. But fans hoping for more dates will be disappointed.
“It’s impossible,” says Osbourne. “Putting this show on in the summer, the busiest time with everybody everywhere in Europe doing festivals. The number of artists we were able to get for that one day was incredible, but you just don’t get that for two days.”
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