Hear Ozzy’s First El Paso Show-& One Of Randy Rhoads Last-Here

Ozzy Osbourne has played El Paso a number of times, I'm pretty sure this is his first post Black Sabbath visit.

Ozzy, the much beloved "Prince Of Darkness", is one of the Godfather's of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. His contributions to the history and evolution of those genres, on his own and with Black Sabbath are huge.

Ozzy and Black Sabbath split in 1979 and he released his first solo album in 1980.

He hit El Paso with Black Sabbath and Brownsville Station in 1975 but didn't come back again until 1982. He had formed a new band by then, Blizzard Of Oz, with an insanely talented guitarist named Randy Rhoads and they released 2 albums.

After the first one, simply titled "Blizzard of Oz", the decision was made to make it all about Ozzy and not have his new project be a "band". On tour in support of his second album, Diary of a Madman, Ozzy and Randy found their way here.

Rhoads re-wrote the book on guitar and forged a new path for all guitarists to follow.  Sadly, El Paso was one of his last shows as he was killed in a plane crash less than a month later.

While not the greatest quality sound-wise, his solo, (as well as his playing/writing in general), show what a true genius he was.

Ozzy has been back to El Chuco a number of times since then and I have caught every show. (Including the '82 one.)

The best one was probably his EP visit with Rob Zombie in 2001, a point at which Zombie was peaking and Oz was in his prime.

Ozzy, by the way, is a very cool guy.

He kicked things off as a deranged Santa, flying in from high above the crowd aboard a sleigh suspended from a track.

I couldn't find any EP footage but here's how it went down in Albany. (NSFW)