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In 1980, Ozzy Osbourne recorded his first post-Black Sabbath album, Blizzard of Ozz. The comeback album featured the songs “Crazy Train” and “Goodbye to Romance,” as well as the standout single “Mr. Crowley.”

Written by Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley, “Mr. Crowley” features a theatrical keyboard intro performed by Don Airey and an iconic guitar solo by Rhoads, as well as a lengthy outro. Osbourne’s vocals highlight the life of English occultist Aleister Crowley.

Daisley, the song’s lyricist, was careful with the dark subject matter.

“Because he was a satanist and into dark stuff and all that, I didn’t want to make a negative song,” he told Rolling Stone in 2021. “I wanted to make it a little bit like talking to Mr. Crowley and going, ‘What the f–k were you thinking? What were you doing? What went on in your head?’ He used to sign his autograph ‘Polemically Aleister Crowley.’ ‘Polemic’ just means ‘controversial.’ That’s why, at the end, I wrote, ‘polemically sent.’” 

Rhoads’ guitar work on “Mr. Crowley” was once ranked among Guitar World’s Top 50 greatest guitar solos of all time.

“I’d have to say that ‘Mr. Crowley’ is my most memorable solo,” Rhoads said shortly before his death in 1982. “I had spent hours trying to figure out a solo for the song but wasn’t getting anywhere. I finally put something down. Then Ozzy came in and said, ‘It’s crap—everything you’re playing is crap.’ He told me to get in there and just play how I felt. He made me really nervous, so I just played anything. When I came back to listen to it, he said it was great, and I had to agree.”

Guitar legend Tom Morello also agreed, once telling the outlet of Rhoads’ “Mr. Crowley” solos, “You could teach those on a college-level musicology course or bang your head [to them] in a heavy metal parking lot.”

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Slash has revealed that he and Ozzy Osbourne had discussed getting into a studio together and making music after the late Black Sabbath frontman made his bow at the band’s epic Back To The Beginning show at Villa Park.

That historic metal all-dayer brought the curtain down on Ozzy and Sabbath’s career, with the Double O holding court from a specially constructed throne. His health issues forced him to perform seated.

Just 17 days later, Ozzy had passed away, aged 76. But speaking to Rolling Stone Australia & New Zealand, Slash says that he and Ozzy had spoken after the gig and had agreed that they should do something together once he got back from his Guns N’ Roses commitments.

“I talked to Ozzy. Ozzy and I have been buddies for a long time, and I recorded with him a bunch of times, and performed with him and stuff,” says Slash. “And so we talked on the phone about getting together to do it. He said, ‘Yeah, we should get together soon.’ And that was the conversation we had on the phone. I guess it was maybe a week after the gig.”

Slash and Guns N’ Roses performed at Back To The Beginning, playing as a five-piece for the first time since 1990, with keys/synth players Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese sitting it out (initially, it was only going to be Slash and GNR bassist Duff McKagan playing).

“I’ve never witnessed anything in my career so far that was this special, as that particular event,” says Slash.

They played four Black Sabbath tracks – a shortened version of It’s Alright segueing into Never Say Die, Junior’s Eye then Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – before closing their set with the one-two punch of Appetite For Destruction classics Welcome To The Jungle and Paradise City.

Slash says he made a point of going backstage to see Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. But he also had the honour of introducing GNR frontman Axl Rose to Ozzy for the first time. Remarkably, they had never met.

“Everybody wanted to go back and pay homage to Ozzy,” says Slash. “I got Axl back there to meet Ozzy for the first time, ‘cos they never met each other. And Axl, obviously, was always a fan of Ozzy, but what Axl didn’t know was Ozzy was a huge fan of his, and so it was nice to see them actually meet.”

This was the last time Slash saw Ozzy. Speaking on the phone, he just assumed that they would see each other again, and put something in the diary for the studio.

“I was sort of like, ‘Okay then, at some point we’ll converge on a studio somewhere.’ And that was it!” says Slash. “Then I went off. I was on the road with Guns, so we went off and finished what we were doing. And then, all of a sudden, I got that fucking phone call. I was like, ‘Jesus Christ!’ It was unbelievable.”

Ozzy and Slash had were both guests on Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid, and on Motörhead’s I Ain’t No Nice Guy, with each showing up on the other’s albums.

Ozzy sang on Slash’s Crucify The Dead, from his eponymous 2010 solo album. Slash played on two tracks from Ozzy’s 2020 studio album, guesting on Straight To Hell and joining Elton John on the title track.

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