40+ years on, Diary Of A Madman still stands as a classic Ozzy Osbourne album from a band at its peak.
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00:00The story of Diary of a Madman is often overshadowed by what happened next.
00:07The years after Diary of a Madman were peak Ozzy Osbourne. These were the years
00:13that made him notorious, where his offstage behavior threatened to become
00:16more famous than his music. Like the time Ozzy bit the head off a dove at a
00:21record company meeting.
00:22You, you've actually, you bit the head off a, was it a pigeon?
00:26Well, it's my hubby, you know.
00:29Or the time he must took a bat thrown on stage as a toy and bit its head off.
00:34I am trying to play it down somewhat because we're getting a lot of hassle from the animal society because
00:40there's a rumor going on that I'm blowing up goats and I don't know where that comes from, you know.
00:45The day he was arrested in Texas, pissing on the Alamo.
00:48Singer Ozzy Osbourne thinks it's fun to defile public shrines.
00:52He says his greatest ambition is to turn the steps of the White House into a public restroom.
00:56And the terrible moment when it all came crashing down.
00:59March the 19th, 1982, when guitarist Randy Rhodes was tragically killed in a plane crash.
01:06But all that came after.
01:09The story of Diary of a Madman really began back in April of 1979.
01:14Fired from Black Sabbath, his marriage falling apart,
01:17Some people said Ozzy's career was over.
01:20I'm a boy!
01:22Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
01:27I?
01:31He was just getting started.
01:35He was just getting started.
01:39Sharon Arden, the daughter of Don Arden, Black Sabbath's manager, convinced him to put a band together,
01:44Black Sabbath's manager convinced him to put a band together and offered to become his manager.
01:50In London, Ozzy met Bob Daisley, the bass player for Rainbow.
01:55They auditioned drummers and settled on Uriah Heap's Lee Kerslake.
02:00Finally, they flew out a guitar player Ozzy had met in LA.
02:04He was a little guy who had a thing for polka dots and played in an upcoming band called Quiet Riot.
02:08He was called Randall William Rhodes, known to the world as Randy Rhodes,
02:18one of the greatest guitar players of all time. Ozzy had found his band.
02:27Debut album Blizzard of Oz was recorded at Ridge Farm Studios in England.
02:32The band clicked, with Ozzy particularly impressed by Randy Rhodes guitar playing.
02:36Released in September of 1980 in the UK, it went to number seven in the charts.
02:41Released in the States the following year, it went to 21 in the billboard charts,
02:45while standout Signal Crazy Train went to number nine.
02:49The band toured the US.
02:51By the time they'd finished, Blizzard of Oz had sold a million copies.
02:55Guitar Player Magazine voted Randy Rhodes Best New Talent of 1981.
03:00Randy, on behalf of the over half a million readers of Guitar Player Magazine
03:05in the US and in 70 countries throughout the world, I'd like to present you with the 1981
03:10Best New Talent Award. Congratulations.
03:14Less than a year after they recorded Blizzard, the band were back at Ridge Farm Studios to record the
03:19follow-up, Diary of a Madman. Ozzy'd had the Diary of a Madman idea in the back of his mind for years,
03:25a loose concept that came from the madness in his life, and a genuine fear that he was losing his mind.
03:31The story of a Madman isn't just a thing that I've thought of now, it's just an idea where I've
03:35moulded around in my head for ages, and in actual fact, when I put it to my management,
03:39I thought I was totally insane.
03:40Where would you like us to go? Would you like us to go over to the fireplace?
03:43We set fire to each other.
03:45After months of touring, it was the band who were on fire,
03:48and all four members contributed to the songwriting.
03:51Ozzy was no longer in the shadow of Black Sabbath, but a solo star in his own right.
04:01The title of the first single from the album said it all. He was flying high again.
04:07On one hand, the song seemed like another of Ozzy's drug anthems, and throughout this time he was
04:12indeed being a bad, bad boy, but it could also be seen as a triumphant two fingers to everyone who
04:17had written him off. The guitar solo by Randy Rhodes was like a gauntlet being thrown down to the
04:23guitar players of the 1980s.
04:42Album opener and the second single from the album, Over the Mountain, sounded heavy,
04:46but came with a positive message about finding the magic in yourself.
04:50Everyone has got a certain amount of craziness in them, and I'm going to unleash it for you,
04:54if you like. Randy Rhodes supplied a suitably mad guitar solo.
05:05If You Can't Kill Rock and Roll showed a softer side of the band. The lyrics were no less heavy,
05:10as Ozzy and Bob Daisley took aim at what they saw as the lies of the music business.
05:16In between, there was the Menacing Believer, Power Ballad Tonight, the voodoo symbolism of
05:29Little Dolls, and the mysteriously riffy S.A.T.O. And then there was the album closer, Diary of a Madman,
05:37an ambitious six-minute epic that ends the album in grand style.
05:47All this would be overshadowed by what happened next, but 40 years on, the music remains.
05:51Diary of a Madman is the sound of a time bomb ticking, the crazy train coming off the rails,
05:57of a band at the peak of its powers. Few bands ever flew as high.
06:04High and high, yeah.
06:06High and high, yeah.
06:08High and high, yeah.
06:10High and high, yeah.
06:12High and high, yeah, yeah.
06:15Come on and join us.
06:18Now.
06:20My dad.
06:30My dad.
06:34My dad.
06:37My dad.