You could almost definitely trace back an ungodly percentage of my music taste to the games I played growing up: Skindred’s ragga metal in Need for Speed Underground 2, Hayley Williams’ Simlish rendition of Paramore’s Pressure in The Sims 2, and approximately 95% of the catalogue each Guitar Hero game had to offer.
I still remember the first time I heard Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train in Guitar Hero World Tour: a rare family holiday gathering in an uncharacteristically fancy Scottish cottage as I smacked away on the plastic drumkit that I’m sure my old man regretted buying me that Christmas, while my cousin attempting a vague Ozzy warble on the microphone.
I was already well indoctrinated into the alternative scene at this point, but being exposed to Ozzy’s solo songs unlocked a much deeper appreciation for early metal work, and the pioneers who moulded the genre into what it is today. A genre which has become so heavily intertwined with videogames that I couldn’t imagine them without people like Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath and beyond.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
After all, ripping guitar riffs and powerful drum beats have scored all manner of videogame adventures. I’ll never forget booting up Killer Instinct Gold on the Nintendo 64 to its scratchy but powerful hard-hitting theme song, or being floored when Final Fantasy 10 hit me with Otherworld, a heavy metal tune that stands in stark contrast to the vast majority of Uematsu’s other work. That’s before we even get into games like Doom and Diablo, whose entire vibes oozes emo excellence.
In the same way that delicate strings are used to convey emotional scenes, heavy metal is used to orchestrate these powerful, badass moments to immerse us right into the action. Headshotting enemies or letting a 100-hit combo rip while a guitar shreds in the background is an insanely cool feeling, one that wouldn’t be nearly as punchy without a roaring soundtrack to back it up.
Ozzy Osbourne’s direct ties to videogames were slim. Bar his numerous appearances on peripheral-based rhythm games—appearing as a playable character in Guitar Hero World World Tour—and a surprising number of Madden games sporting at least one of his songs, his main videogame credit comes from Brütal Legend. He lent his voice and likeness to the aptly named Guardian of Metal as well as voicing Dadbat.
But indirectly, Ozzy’s impact spreads so much further. Alongside Black Sabbath, Osbourne is revered as one of the godfathers of heavy metal, laying the foundations for the genre and continuing to influence subsequent artists for years. That spreads out into the people who make our games, compose the music for them, which in turn shapes a whole future army of metalhead gamers. As it should be.
And as we’ve seen in the wake of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing—just over two weeks after his final farewell show in his hometown of Birmingham—that influence reaches far beyond the industry he spent so many decades in. Doom creator John Romero remarked that “So much of Doom’s soul is down to heavy metal, and without Ozzy and Sabbath, I am not sure it would have been the same. Certainly, I would not have been the same.”
Double Fine boss Tim Schafer—creative director of Brütal Legend—also posted his condolences. It’s hard to imagine a game like Brütal Legend even existing without trailblazers like Sabbath. Hell, the entire game is a love letter to metal music, with Schafer plucking over 100 tracks from a bunch of its subgenres. The game even went free for 666 minutes on itch.io to honour his death earlier this week.
So even if Ozzy’s involvement in videogames wasn’t all that prolific—though there was that rad as hell World of Warcraft advert he did, or more recently, swearing at videogame dinosaurs while advertising the PlayStation VR2 headset—the trickledown influence his work has had on the industry, and on me, is hard to ignore.
I’ll always be grateful to videogames for shaping me into this weird, nerdy little emo kid (who is now a weird, nerdy big emo adult). In a slightly roundabout way, I most certainly have the Prince of Darkness, godfather of heavy metal Ozzy Osbourne to thank for that.