Ozzy Osbourne was one of very, very few heavy metal icons who actually crossed over into the mainstream. As beloved as he was by metalheads for his pioneering work with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, others fell in love with him for his chaotic roles in The Osbournes and other film, TV and even gaming properties. So, following the Birmingham legend’s tragic passing at the age of 76, it’s important not just to remember his musical achievements, but also his most famed extracurricular ones. Below, Hammer has compiled the greatest onscreen cameos that the wizard of Ozz made across his incredible career.
Trick Or Treat (1986)
Charles Martin Smith’s semi-obscure supernatural slasher capitalised on the paranoia around rock music during the ‘satanic panic’. Featuring cameos from Gene Simmons and Ozzy, it was about a young metalhead called Eddie, who became possessed by the vengeful spirit of his favourite rock star following the musician’s mysterious death. A soundtrack by Fastway, which featured former members of Motörhead, and posters of Judas Priest, Anthrax and more proved the filmmakers did their homework, but Ozzy’s cameo showed a next-level understanding of heavy music.
Across a handful of scenes, Ozzy appeared as a TV preacher, proselytising about how rock’n’roll was corrupting America’s brains and calling the music a “sickness”. Getting Black Sabbath’s singer, of all people, to cameo as a moral grand-stander preaching shallow notions of moral superiority was a perfect pinch of irony. And Ozzy’s all-guns-blazing performance made it even better.
The Decline Of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years (1988)
We’re not sure that this is a ‘cameo’ per se, but Ozzy’s appearance during The Decline Of Western Civilization, Part II has entertained metalheads for decades now, and it would be a crime to ignore it. Penelope Spheeris’ rock doc, the sequel to her 1981 unpicking of L.A. punk, depicted the war then consuming West Coast metal: for every band in it for the music and rebellion, there was another simply chasing woman, drugs and celebrity.
In between, Spheeris interviewed such heavyweights as Lemmy Kilmister and Paul Stanley. Ozzy’s segment, however, has outlived everything else. He discussed rock’n’roll hedonism while making breakfast in his PJ’s, complete with a now-legendary moment where he pours orange juice and completely misses the glass. The shot was (sadly) fake, but why let the truth get in the way of good fun?
South Park: Chef Aid (1998)
The advent of the touring extravaganza Ozzfest in the mid-1990s revived interest in Ozzy’s career and made him the unintentional herald of the nu metal generation. With that renaissance came a whole new slew of pop-culture cameos, one of the earliest and biggest was his appearance on South Park.
Ozzy only showed up in the episode Chef Aid briefly, performing as part of a charity concert for the character Chef after he lost a legal battle, but stole the show. He offered a comedic anecdote about Chef’s apparent influence on his career, revealing that he misconstrued his advice to “buy a pompadour hat” as “bite the head off a bat”. He then decapitates Kenny for no good reason. The double-O also deserves credit for singing on an original song for the episode, entitled Vapor Trail (Nowhere To Run).
Little Nicky (2000)
Little Nicky was a film where Adam Sandler served as both star and executive producer. Much like every other film where Adam Sandler has served as both star and executive producer, it was absolute dogshit. However, Ozzy’s surprise appearance at this ‘comedy’s’ climax actually proved to be hilarious.
Ozzy’s cameo is set up by the villain of the film – Rhys Ifans’ Adrian, the heir to Hell – turning himself into a bat to dispatch his baby brother, Sandler’s titular protagonist. To vanquish the baddie, Nicky smashes a mysterious orb, from which the Prince Of Darkness emerges and proceeds to follow his natural instinct of biting the head off the nearest flying mammal. Arguably even better is the bit where Nicky needs to die to return to his home in Hell, so Ozzy returns out of the blue and casually hands him a massive slab of stone.
Late Night With Conan O’Brien (2001)
Shortly after September 11, Late Night visionary and low-key mega-metalhead Conan O’Brien aired a skit where he tried to lift the spirits of his nervous and dispirited production staff. Naturally, who better to help with that than the Prince Of Darkness himself?
Ozzy may have been brought in to calm the tension in Conan’s office, but everything he did, he did with the unfiltered mouth and endearing cluelessness that made the singer a reality TV phenomenon one year later. In the space of six minutes, he offered someone a neck rub only to unintentionally strangle them, stared intensely at a dove in a cage, and screamed Crazy Train at a fan down the phone only to forget the words half a verse in. An underrated testament to both Ozzy’s self-awareness and Conan’s talent at pushing any bit to its fullest potential.
Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002)
Boobs! In early 2002, Ozzy and his family were newfound reality TV stars, the first series of their programme The Osbournes having become the most-watched thing in MTV history. The producers of the third Austin Powers – already a cameo-rich affair featuring such giants as Steven Spielberg, Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Cruise – struck while the iron was hot, rushing the singer, Sharon, Kelly and Jack in for a joke where a satellite resembling a pair of knockers got pulled towards Earth.
Ozzy and co.’s contribution saw the godfather of metal shout “boobs!” at his TV, followed by the reveal that he wasn’t talking about the busty space object, but in fact chastising the filmmakers for recycling a gag from the previous films, where a rocket resembled a wang. Although it wasn’t Shakespeare, it was brilliantly random and re-solidified Osbourne’s status as a mainstream symbol.
Brütal Legend (2009)
Gaming’s most reverent love-letter to heavy metal (yes, even more so than Guitar Hero!), Brütal Legend turned the player into Eddie Riggs: a guitar-wielding, demon-hunting roadie voiced by Jack Black. Getting the frontman of Tenacious D to quip while racking up a kill count in a fiery hellscape would have been metal enough, but developer Double Fine went all-out, rounding out the voice cast with the likes of Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford and Lita Ford.
The holy grail of hard rock royalty, our favourite Prince Of Darkness, also had a role in the game. He both voiced and lent his likeness to the ‘Guardian Of Metal’: the mythical figure Eddie turned to for upgrades and exposition. Ozzy got some cracking lines to boot, possibly the best being a nonchalant and brilliantly Brummie-sounding, “You’ve got some demon flesh on your bumper.”
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