In a unique and analytical tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, veteran rock guitarist Ted Nugent has argued that Black Sabbath, the very band credited with inventing heavy metal, was “basically a blues” band at its core, with a sound deeply rooted in the American rhythm and blues that inspired the British Invasion.
Speaking on a recent episode of his Spirit Campfire show, Nugent paid his respects to the “God of heavy metal” by offering a fascinating, counter-intuitive perspective on the music that made him a legend.
“They called it heavy metal, but basically it was blues,” Nugent stated. He traced the band’s musical lineage back through Ozzy‘s well-known obsession with The Beatles, and then further back to the American artists who influenced them.
“You know where The Beatles musical authority came from?” he asked. “Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Mose Allison, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimmy Reed, B.B. King… ultimately Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.” He argued that Black Sabbath took that inspiration and simply amplified it, creating what he called “heavier, thicker, grinding rhythm and blues music.”
Nugent, whose own band The Amboy Dukes opened for Black Sabbath in the early 1970s, offered a tribute that was characteristically blunt, mixing high praise with pointed criticism. While calling Ozzy an “incredible musical force,” he also reiterated his long-held disapproval of the singer’s lifestyle.
“I not only disagreed with a big part of his lifestyle, I condemned it,” Nugent said. “I think getting drunk and st*ned and stupid is really disrespectful to God’s gift… I was very critical of the TV show that made fun of his condition.” Despite this, he was unequivocal in his admiration for the man and the music. “But you know what? I loved Ozzy Osbourne,” he declared.
His deepest respect was for Ozzy‘s unique musical talent. He praised Osbourne‘s “incredible, uncanny sense of melody and phrasing and cadence that he gleaned and created his own style and his own genre.”
Nugent concluded with heartfelt condolences for the Osbourne family, acknowledging the immense pain of losing a loved one, a feeling he said is magnified “when it’s such a historically profound, influential global figure like Ozzy Osbourne.”
