In a new interview with Pierre Robert of Philadelphia’s 93.3 WMMR radio station, Alice Cooper spoke about his recent tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, a performance of BLACK SABBATH‘s classic song “Paranoid” during Alice‘s July 25 gig at London’s sold-out O2 Arena. Reflecting on how he found out about the BLACK SABBATH legend’s passing and his decision to play “Paranoid” in Ozzy‘s honor, Alice said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”I was on my way on stage in Scotland, I think it was, going on stage, and somebody said, ‘Ozzy just passed.’ And I went, ‘Oh, it’s one of those A.I. stories that you can never believe any of these stories.’ And then somebody said, ‘No, for real. He’s gone.’ And I went, ‘How weird. Just two weeks ago they had the big thing [‘Back To The Beginning’ concert] in Birmingham. And then they must have known — he must have known that he was on his way.’ But at the same time, the O2, I said, ‘Well, yeah, we have to tip our hat to Ozzy.’ Of course, he was an old, 40-year-old friend for me; I’ve known him forever. So, I called up [actor] Johnny Depp, who’s in the HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES with me. And Johnny‘s a killer guitar player. I mean, he’s a really good guitar player. He was playing with Jeff Beck when Jeff Beck passed away. So, you don’t play with Jeff Beck unless you’re a guitar player. And he came up, and we never told the audience what we were gonna do. At the end of ‘School’s Out’, they figured, ‘Well, there’s nothing else after that,’ with the balloons and the confetti and the whole thing, and then the guitar player starts ‘Paranoid’, and the place went crazy. And at the end, I just said, ‘Hey,’ I said, ‘Everybody say good night to Ozzy.'”
After Robert noted that “Back To The Beginning” was “a grand way” for Ozzy to go out, with ” artists of all different generations” paying tribute to him at the event, Alice said: “There must have been knowledge of, you don’t have that much longer. And [Ozzy‘s wife and manager] Sharon‘s such a great lady, and [their kids] Jack and Kelly, they’re really a cool family. I felt very, very sorry. But I think at least it wasn’t sudden. I think that they saw it coming and prepared for it.”
Last month, Alice was asked by Darren Redick of U.K.’s Planet Rock if Ozzy Osbourne‘s July 22 death gave him pause in any way. Alice responded: “Even though you know it’s coming, especially with Ozzy, especially with certain guys in rock where you go, ‘He certainly hasn’t been well for a while.’ But what a shock to the system… He was a very beloved character in rock.”
Elaborating on his relationship with Ozzy, Alice said: “We did shows together. He was not one of those guys that I would say [was] one of my best friends, but we were close when we saw each other. We’d go, ‘Oh, good to see you, man,’ dah, dah, dah. We didn’t hang in the same sort of people. I knew [Ozzy‘s wife and manager] Sharon, I think, more than I knew Ozzy, ’cause I’d met Sharon before for other things, and I met [their son] Jack a couple of times.
“Ozzy and I did four or five things together — he sang on [my album] ‘Hey Stoopid’, and we did Brazil together, a soccer stadium down there together, and things like that,” Alice continued. “But there was never that, ‘Let me call Ozzy,’ there was never that thing. I just respected him and I think we had a mutual respect for each other. We had a lot of the same players. I mean, the great thing about being a lead singer without a band is that you get your pick of — you know who the guitar players are, you know who the drummers are, you know who the bass players are. So between us, we had the same drummer at one time. You get your pick of the litter.”
Cooper and his band found out that the world lost Osbourne just minutes before they were due to go perform in Cardiff, Wales, which is about two hours from the place where legendary BLACK SABBATH singer was born. Before hitting the stage, Alice recorded the following quote for his radio show “Alice’s Attic”: “Well, we all know that time is going to take us rockers, but when the giants fall, it’s really hard to accept. Even though everybody saw it coming with Ozzy, it just took our breath away when it happened. So, Ozzy and family, your records and your music and your legend and all that you brought — the humor to the rock business — will live on forever and we’re gonna miss you, man.”
Alice and his band then dedicated their Cardiff show to Ozzy‘s memory and they were able to celebrate along with the crowd who had also just learned of this great loss for rock and roll. Following the concert, Alice summed up his thoughts by saying: “The whole world is mourning Ozzy tonight. Over his long career, he earned immense respect among his peers and from fans around the world as an unmatched showman and cultural icon.
“I always saw Ozzy as a cross between the prince of darkness, which is the persona his fans saw, and the court jester. That was the side that his family and friends saw. He was and will continue to be a rock and roll legend.
“Rock and roll is a family and a fraternity. When we lose one of our own, it bleeds. I wish I would have gotten to know my brother Ozzy better.
“Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and the rest of the Ozzy brood — our prayers are with you tonight. A titanic boulder has crashed, but rock will roll on.”
In 1991, Ozzy provided backing vocals to Cooper‘s song “Hey Stoopid”, which was the title track of Alice‘s 12th studio album. The two worked together again on the song “Wake The Dead”, which appeared on Cooper‘s 2008 album “Along Came A Spider”.
