Ozzy Osbourne speaks onstage in the course of the 2024 Rock & Roll Corridor Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Oct. 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Dia Dipasupil/Getty Pictures North America
Rock ‘n’ roll legend and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne died earlier this week at age 76.
He was an enigmatic determine identified for a lot of issues – being a forefather of heavy metallic, biting the top off a bat onstage and dramatically screaming his spouse’s identify, Sharon, on the small display screen.
However he additionally had an unmistakable look: tiny, spherical sun shades; darkish, shoulder-length hair; a cane, a coat and a cross pendant necklace.
And very like with music and tv, he dug a stake into the world of vogue over a few years.
Osbourne’s first half of vogue
In 1968, Osbourne, together with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Invoice Ward fashioned a blues band, Earth Blues Firm. Rock within the Seventies nonetheless had robust components of the style’s beginnings in funk, blues and soul, obvious within the works of musicians reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, The Stooges and Cream, mentioned Martin Popoff, a heavy metallic historian.
Butler urged the band begin making music that seemed like horror flicks, and Black Sabbath was born in 1970, in response to the band’s web site. However bands’ aesthetics had been nonetheless characterised by the hippie and “flower energy” look of that decade — handlebar mustaches, bell bottoms, deep V-cut shirts and fringe.
“Of their vogue sense, on their album covers, they had been simply form of like a general-looking form of band, form of like everyone was,” Popoff mentioned.
However even when following developments, Osbourne managed to face out. For instance, his platform boots had been sparkly (which he would later name considered one of his vogue fake pas). He was typically shirtless on stage. Bryan Rolli, a music journalist, factors to the quilt of Black Sabbath’s 1975 album Sabotage, during which Osbourne’s bandmates have on jackets and trousers. Then, all the best way to the suitable is Osbourne.
“Ozzy has this massive, ornate gown on, with this loopy sample that appears like an vintage rug or one thing.”
Popoff mentioned, “What Ozzy establishes within the ’70s is this concept that Ozzy is so cool and such a central level of this massive band, Black Sabbath…that no matter he chooses as a vogue assertion onstage, primarily turns into cool.”
Because the themes in his music obtained darker, so did his garments. There was additionally a much bigger emphasis on vogue amongst musicians, with the launch of MTV in 1981, Popoff mentioned. Osbourne started experimenting together with his hair within the early a part of the last decade, together with perming it and shaving it off.
Across the launch of his fourth solo album, The Final Sin in 1986, Osbourne’s fashion started brightening up a bit, drawing ire from audiences. He went blonde, started toying with make-up and wore a lot of sequins.
“He goes full on Liberace dressing like a Christmas tree, hair metallic for a short time,” Popoff mentioned. “And that is the stage the place folks accuse him of wanting like [comedian] Phyllis Diller or any individual’s grandmother or aunt.”
By the late ’80s and ’90s, Osbourne joined his rock band friends in adopting components of the grunge look.
“There’s much more black being launched into what they’re sporting, however they’re nonetheless attempting to look form of elegant and expensive-looking,” Popoff mentioned.
The Ozzy Osbourne “uniform”
Within the Nineties and 2000s, the quintessential Ozzy Osbourne wardrobe was born.
He goes goth. He adopts small, spherical glasses akin to John Lennon. He carries a cane. He’s typically in all black, topped with an overcoat. He wears chunky, silver jewellery, together with cross pendants that his father, a toolmaker, handcrafted for him.
He caught with that look, roughly, till his demise. Popoff and Rolli say they are not fully positive why his fashion settled there, however they’ve their theories.
“That is actually when Ozzy developed that sound and picture that had been not tied to a selected second,” Rolli mentioned. “It was like, that is the Ozzy that individuals will consider on a regular basis.”
In 2002, The Osbournes premiered on MTV, showcasing the ups and downs of Osbourne, his spouse, Sharon, and two of their youngsters, Kelly and Jack. It received an Emmy for greatest actuality program in its first yr and, at its peak, drew in virtually 7 million viewers, in response to Billboard.
“Possibly [his staple look] had one thing to do with The Osbournes present, the place you are pondering branding in a giant approach,” Popoff mentioned.
Mainstream tradition largely perceived Osbourne as a satan worshipper, in response to Popoff. (“He was virtually extra terrified of Devil than something,” he mentioned.) However the actuality sequence confirmed a softer, extra relatable aspect of Osbourne – peeled right down to T-shirts, jerseys and sweatpants.
“Underneath that, you may nonetheless see he is lined in tattoos,” Rolli mentioned. “He is nonetheless obtained the loopy hair, with any variety of extensions or dreads or dyed bits in it. And it is like yeah, you may costume that down as a lot as you need, however it’s nonetheless Ozzy Osbourne under there.”
