Maybe the most iconic character in heavy metal music, Ozzy's solo career started way back in 1979, after having been unceremoniously fired by his band of over 10 years, the legendary Black Sabbath. A lot of his notoriety comes from the dozens of stories of legendary, Spinal Tap-like rock-madness: the dove, the bat, the Alamo... and of course a lot of it comes from his family's pioneering and highly successful reality television show. His goofiness, age (he's 66 as of this writing) and devil-may-care attitude make him easy to overlook as an artist, but I, for one, don't believe his 45+ year career, his legions of fans and his enormous influence on just about every heavy metal band in history can fairly be disregarded as dumb luck.
Probably the main ingredient in Ozzy's illustrious career has been his charisma, both as a personality and as a singer. He's extremely likable and very down-to-earth, and it comes through in his vocal performance, not to mention his on-stage persona. One of his trademarks, dating back to the late 60's, is his double-tracking of his vocal lines, often in unison, which, when coupled with his helium-infused voice, achieves a haunting affect: desperate, paranoid and especially human.
Nearly an equal source of his success has been the in the selection of supporting musicians; especially guitarists. Burbank's own Randy Rhoads, who had already developed a local following with his band Quiet Riot, joined Ozzy in 1979 and went on to influence countless guitarists with his neo-classical soloing, heavy use of extended techniques and under-appreciated and inventive rhythm playing. Randy helped define Ozzy's sound as a solo artist and their chemistry was undeniable. Following Randy's death in 1982, Ozzy was accompanied by very competent shredders Brad Gillis and Jake E. Lee, before settling on the great Zakk Wylde in 1987, who still seems to serve as Ozzy's on-call guitarist when needed.
If you haven't heard Ozzy's first two albums, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, shame on you. You should correct that as soon as possible. Beside being terrific works start to finish, they're foundational pieces of the art and history of metal music. It's hard to choose one song from that era to play for you, but I want to give you a taste of the later stuff too. The title track from the second album is probably my favorite Ozzy Osbourne song, but I'm going to forego it in favor of one of my favorite guitar studio performances of all time, "Mr. Crowley" from Blizzard of Ozz. Randy's soloing on this track is inspired.
And a live recording of "Bark at the Moon" from the 1983 album of the same name, recorded much later (1997 I think) with Zakk on guitar and Mike Bordin of Faith No More on Drums.
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