Some time ago I’d featured the first 2 BLIZZARD OF OZZ albums as a ‘classic pair’ of albums, and for me those 2 albums – whether you want to classify them as band albums (as I do) or as OZZY OSBOURNE solo albums are above anything else Ozzy did beyond BLACK SABBATH.

So, my ‘best of’ Ozzy list would include almost all of those tracks before anything else. This ‘best of the other albums’ is my selection of favorite Ozzy tunes beyond Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman. really, the next 2 albums with Jake E Lee were his next best albums for a long time, and I really started losing interest after No Rest For The Wicked, aside from Ozzmosis (which I like), it’s all pretty much downhill for me. But (back up a bit), there was also the Mr Crowley live Ep, with the excellent non- album track “You Said It All”, and prior to the next solo album was the double live Speak Of The Devil (or Talk Of The Devil in some countries). Loved Speak Of The Devil at the time, it’s still my favorite Ozzy live release, even if it is all Black Sabbath songs! Brad Gillis sounded amazing on this. A shame it was such a tough period for Ozzy, and that Brad couldn’t continue (he would have great success with a number of excellent Night Ranger hits and albums). So, this article ended up being an overview of those Ozzy studio albums beyond the original band…

Bark At The Moon

Ozzy’s first album with Jake E Lee. Also here are Tommy Aldridge and Don Airey, who’d remained from Ozzy’s touring band since the death of Randy Rhoads. Rudy Sarzo had left, a combination of Ozzy needing Bob Daisley back to write songs, and Rudy’s feelings of still being there after the loss of his friend. Before the album was done Tommy would be fired and Carmine Appice was brought in to finish/fix the album’s drums and then tour. This is told in Carmine’s interview with The Metal Voice some years back.

I remember buying Bark At The Moon in March of 1984 at a small record shop in Niagara Falls. The store had a Ticketron outlet, and I had to go to get a refund for a cancelled Saga concert (February 29!), so with that I purchased Bark At The Moon (and a Styx album). I played this album to death for the first few weeks, and liked pretty much everything on it, except for sappy ballad “So Tired” (who thought this would be cool on an Ozzy album!?)

Side one was near perfect, the title track / first single was outstanding at the time, and even the keyboard heavy “You’re No Different” is one of the best here, followed by “Now You See It, Now You Don’t”, and the classic “Rock N Roll Rebel”. With Ozzy being an easy target for religious groups who would set up protests at his shows, “Rock N Roll Rebel” was an excellent and fitting anthem in response to critics. As much as I was a Randy Rhoads fan, I loved Jake E Lee’s sound on the 2 albums he did, very different to Randy, but the guy played heavy and creative. A shame he got fucked over and left the Ozzy fold. Side two was very good, though I spun it far less. “Centre Of Eternity” (titled “Forever” in some countries) was a fast paced rocker to open that side, but then things grind to a halt with the ballad “So Tired” – piano, strings, like WTF! I was never a fan of Sabbath’s “Changes”, and this was worse. Things picked back up with “Slow Down”, a decent rock tune. And the album ended with on a high note with another favorite, “Waiting for Darkness”.

Bark At The Moon (for me) is the next best album released under the Ozzy name in the catalogue, but a lot of that credit goes to Jake and Bob, along with Max Norman. I think this album lacked a certain ‘band’ magic that the previous 2 albums possessed, as well as some sort of Epic track ala “Revelation (Mother Earth)” or “Diary Of A Madman”.

The ‘werewolf’ idea that featured in the title track (single & video) was interesting at the time, as there’d been a number of ‘werewolf’ films in 81-82, most notably “An American Werewolf In London’, and (later, 85) “Teen Wolf”). Michael Jackson’sThriller came out a year prior to Bark At The Moon, and the video (produced by the same guy who produced American Werewolf In London). Ozzy did an interview on Canadian TV in 84-85, and was asked about Michael Jackson and Thriller, and he replied “boring to both, but when asked about the video, Ozzy sighed and said “Ok”. (I have this on an old VHS tape somewhere). The video shoot for the “Bark At The Moon” would use the same make up artist who had also worked on American Werewolf in London and the “Thriller” video! “So Tired” was released as the 2nd single & video, where a shattering mirror sent Ozzy to hospital with glass in his throat. Frankly, either single B-side (“Spiders” and “One Up The B Side”) would’ve been better on the LP, IMO. The non-LP tracks would appear on the 2002 re-mixed reissue on the album.

It took a few years before Ozzy’s next album, but The Ultimate Sin was released in early 1986.

The Ultimate Sin album was originally intended to be called Killer Of Giants, according to the press back then. The cover featured artwork by fantasy illustrator, Boris Vallejo. Fortunately, he still had Bob Daisley around for the early stages of this album to co-write songs with Jake E Lee. Daisley later recalled that he’d tried to get Ashley Howe in to produce the album, as Howe had produced the 2 Uriah Heep albums that Bob was on (Abominog and Head First). But as Daisley didn’t carry on to play on the album, that idea wasn’t pursued and Ron Nevison was hired to produce. During the mid 80s, Nevison was producing commercial rock albums for Heart, Survivor, Triumph, and Jefferson Starship. Bass player Phil Soussan, ex Wildlife was hired to play on the album and tour, while Mike Moran (ex Ian Gillan) played keyboards. I remember picking this LP up when it came out, in a shop in Hamilton. Played the heck out of it. I thought (and still think) Jake E Lee was even better on this album, with many creative riffs and solos, some cool intros… Jake’s performances are THE best sounding thing about this album! But I can’t say that I dig it as much overall now due to the production / sound, and a couple of songs. New drummer Randy Castillo does a decent job, but can’t help but think that it’s ironic that after Diary of A Madman, Ozzy (Sharon) was quick to dismiss Lee Kerslake, and then went through at least 3 of them over the next few albums. However, the 2 side openers made for decent singles – the title track and “Lightning Strikes”, but there’s a few even better cuts here, notably “Never” (the best, IMO), “Fool Like You”, “Never Know Why” (despite revisiting the ‘rock rebel’ theme again), and “Killer Of Giants” (kind of a return to that “Diary Of A Madman” epic feel with the acoustic guitar). Not so big on “Thank God For The Bomb” and the cover of “Shot In The Dark” (a blatant attempt at doing something mainstream / commercial, which just doesn’t fit here). Co-credited for the hit “Shot In The Dark” was Soussan, as the song was originally recorded during his Wildlife days, but there’s more to this song, as John Sloman (ex Lone Star, Uriah Heep) lays some claim to the songs origins in his book (Lost On Planet Artiface), as the bass player also worked briefly with Sloman in the singer’s post-Heep band Badlands (Not to be confused with Jake E Lee’s post-Ozzy band!) Soussan in more recent years is part of the Dio alumni band Last In Line.

Before the next studio album there was the release of the Randy Rhoads live Tribute album, which was most welcome to hear Randy playing live. But now I can’t help but wonder why they haven’t released something else, particularly from the original ( Blizzard of Ozz band) on their first UK tour, following the first album’s release.

No Rest For The Wicked came out in ’88, and this was the last Ozzy album I picked up close to release date. Bob Daisley was back on bass, along with ex Uriah Heep keyboard player John Sinclair (though credited fully, neither would be pictured on the album’s inner sleeve). Randy Castillo was back, and new young guitarist Zakk Wylde. For the most part I really liked this record; it had 4 standouts (favorite cuts) for me – the single “Miracle Man” (mocking Jimmy Swaggart – “now Jimmy he got busted, with his pants down”), “Bloodbath In Paradise”, “Breaking All The Rules”, and the softer “Fire In The Sky” (which started life demo’d as “Valley Of Kings” when Sinclair & Daisley were in Uriah Heep, 1982). The rest is not bad, but those ones I was happy with and played repeatedly. I liked Zakk’s sound here, and he came up with some big riffs and solos, and the overall sound & production is a big improvement over the dated sound of The Ultimate Sin. Sinclair contributed a classic intro to “Bloodbath In Paradise”, and then contributed largely to the piano based ballad “Liar” – which was a non-LP track, along the excellent “Hero”. I’m guessing both of the latter tracks were left off the LP to keep it heavy, with cuts like “Devil’s Daughter”, “Tattooed Dancer” (which is spelt wrong on the back of the LP!), and “Demon Alcohol”. I think after revisiting these albums, No Rest For The Wicked was/is much better than I remembered, and I’ll put it slightly above the previous one.

Following the release of No Rest... Bob Daisley was gone again, and in came Geezer Butler for the tour. Gone are the ridiculous glam outfits of The Ultimate Sin era, with everyone looking more ‘rock n roll’, in leather and denim. 1990 saw the release of the 6 song EP – Just Say Ozzy (recorded in the UK, November of ’89). This featured 4 tracks from No Rest For The Wicked, plus 2 Black Sabbath classics. Not a bad release, but where’s the rest of the show?

Now this is where I kind of got off the Ozzy train. Growing less enthused about many of my favorites from the early 80s (really, I think the ’80s bands golden era was pretty much over), by then… I had moved on, or more so – back(!), discovering and picking up more ’70s band’s like Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, and Uriah Heep. I continued to pick up the next few Ozzy releases, but was not in much of a rush.

The next album was No More Tears, and I got to confess I never liked the title track, or the sound of this (ok, the bass intro is cool). Between Zakk’s sound, the production here, and new writers, etc… Ozzy (musically) was sounding like other metal acts of the time. There was also a few softer cuts here (ballads). For me there was no huge standout tracks, though if I had to pick a favorite it would be “Desire”. Bob Daisley played on this album, but was not in the songwriting credits. Ozzy co-wrote a number of songs with Lemmy (Motorhead), as well as Wylde and Castillo. I know this album was a huge seller and got lots of press at the time, ya know – because it was supposed to be Ozzy’s final album and tour, but for me it’s a ‘nice’ listen, just not very memorable. This was followed up by the Live & Loud release. I played this and the even worse Live At Budokan very few times. Again, wasn’t a fan of the sound at this point, nor did I care to hear Ozzy dropping F-bombs between songs, and the Budokan album has got to be the worst album cover in Ozzy’s catalogue!

Now, 1995’s Ozzmosis I actually thought was an improvement. Despite the move towards mainstream with more outside writers, I really liked the single “Perry Mason”. An interesting subject for a song, the fictional defense lawyer created by writer (and lawyer) Erie Stanley Gardner, and who then became the title character of the American tv show that ran for nearly a decade from the late 50s to 60s. But this is a powerful song, heavy, dramatic, that leads off the album. .Ozzy tells it so well. Geezer Butler on bass, Dean Castronovo on drums! This album also includes the singles “See You On The Other Side”, and “I Just Want You”, which was co-written by Jim Vallance, best known for his years of co-writing with Bryan Adams. It’s kind of a heavy ballad, highlighted by Rick Wakeman’s keyboards and a great vocal from Ozzy. Ozzmosis also included heavier favorites “Denial” and “Tomorrow”. The track “My Little Man”, was co-written with Steve Vai, which is interesting as Bob Daisley later recalled that he, Vai, and Ozzy got together a year earlier to this album and started working on a project, which was abandoned. Ozzmosis was Ozzy’s highest charting album in the US then.

The Ozzman Cometh was the career spanning (mostly post-Sabbath), released in 1997. Shameful that Bob Daisley’s name was spelled wrong throughout. There’s a few different early versions of Sabbath classics, as well as “Paranoid” live from the Randy Rhoads period. Their was one ‘new’ track, “Back On Earth”, which was from the Ozzmosis sessions, and has a keyboard intro/pattern, not too different to “I Just Want You” . A decent song, and single.

It would be 6 years from Ozzmosis to the next studio album, 2001’s Down To Earth. Despite having another odd cover, I thought this one is the last good Ozzy studio album. Some excellent tracks in “It Gets Me Through”, “That I Never Had”, and the ballad “Dreamer” ( a vast improvement on “So Tired”) A number of these songs were co-written with guitarist Joe Holmes, who played live with Ozzy following Ozzmosis. Interesting that Down To Earth went Top 10 in Canada and the US.

After all those Ozzy albums I was pretty done, and I’ve picked up things over the years – not because I expected much or liked what I heard before release. 2007’s Under Cover album (who the Hell wants to hear Ozzy doing a bunch of cover versions!?), then Black Rain, which I thought was forgettable at the time. I never bought it then, and only have it now because I found it for $3 at a flea market a few years ago. Scream came out in 2010, and not as forgettable as Black Rain. In retrospect I never gave this one a lot of time then, but revisiting it, Scream is better than I remembered. Really, at the time I picked up in part because it came with the t-shirt, and didn’t expect much! But I like the lead off track “Let It Die”, as well as the single “Life Won’t Wait”, the (somewhat) title track “Let Me Hear You Scream”. Gus G on guitars, Adam Wakeman on keyboards.

The last 2 Ozzy releases – Ordinary Man (2020) and Patient Number 9 (2022), I bought these at some point, perhaps as a completist and was expecting something with all the guests on these albums, or was easily swayed by all the suck-up reviews. Either way, a few listens and I just don’t care.

In retrospect I dig the ’80s Ozzy era even more so, and wouldn’t miss much else beyond No Rest For The Wicked (well, maybe Ozzmosis). It also makes me want to go back and fill in the gaps from the ’80s with live recordings and some singles (those non LP cuts). I’ve still got binders of Ozzy press clippings and magazine articles from the 80s, and early 90s, that I’ll have to scan some day.