In 1986, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was on his own personal crusade. He described rock bands and rock magazines as “pornography and degenerative filth which denigrates all the values we hold sacred and is destructive to youth.”
According to a Los Angeles Times news story published that summer, his words and reputation held such weight during the height of the Satanic Panic, that 800 Walmart stores across North America stopped stocking rock and teen magazines. Albums by Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Mötley Crüe, and Judas Priest were also pulled from the shelves.
“Let’s just say there are scores of magazines like Hit Parader, which are sold to teens, that are full of four-letter words and graphic descriptions and language which gives teens the impression that premarital sex and perversion are just fine,” said Swaggart. “I bought a whole stack of magazines last week and they contain lurid pornographic detail about these groups. The whole rock scene – the records, the magazines and the concerts – couldn’t get any worse. They’re taking a deadly toll.”
When Ozzy Osbourne and his band were working on the follow-up to The Ultimate Sin in early 1988, news broke that Swaggart, a first cousin of the problematic rock 'n' roller Jerry Lee Lewis, had visited a sex worker in a New Orleans motel. The sound of Ozzy's unmistakable cackle must have been heard across the whole of Los Angeles.
Swaggart made a tearful, televised apology from the Family Worship Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that February and, in turn, inspired the opening song on No Rest for The Wicked.
Ozzy's fifth studio album marked the studio debut of his new protégé Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt, a 21-year-old with a mane of blond hair and skills reminiscent of the late Randy Rhoads.
Renamed by Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon as Zakk Wylde, his recruitment brought a dazzling flair and much-needed crunch to the new material following the dismissal of Jake E. Lee.
“You know, I have a knack for finding great guitarists,” Ozzy told Guitar World. “Jake E. Lee, was, and still is a great guitar player. But it was just one of those things that happened. And Zakk would ask me questions about the previous guys, about Randy, about Jake, about Tony [Iommi]. He wanted to learn. And he only got better.
“People used to say to me, ‘Why don’t you go for the best soccer player?’ And I’d say, ‘No. I have more fun watching a guy who wants to be the best soccer player develop into him.’ Zakk was that guy.”
Zakk's guitar parts on Miracle Man were inspired by The Jimi Hendrix Experience's 1967 single Foxy Lady (or Foxey Lady).
"That's why I always tell kids, it's just like cooking," Zakk told Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza on his podcast. "You learn how other songs are written, and you're inspired or influenced by them. Or you remember it, and then you tweak it and bend it [to write a song].
"I remember Dime [Dimebag Darrell, late Pantera guitarist] did this one riff on a certain song," he added. "I go, 'If you didn't tell me that, I would have never got it, because you changed it 'round a bit.' But the spark of inspiration that led you to where you ended up was a specific song.”
The song, written by Ozzy, Zakk and returning bassist Bob Daisley, tore into the televangelist – named 'Jimmy Sinner' – in a sub-four-minute beating.
The second verse, "Today I saw a miracle man on TV crying, such a hypocritical man, born again, dying," refers to the televised meltdown they saw earlier in 1988.
“They were always putting my records down and saying I was the anti-Christ,” Ozzy later told Uncut, “and it turned out they weren’t so holy after all.”
The barbs didn't stop there. In the promotional video for the single, which was released a month after the album on October 24, 1988, pokes further fun at the disgraced preacher.
When the music went on, the pigs all took a massive shit at the same time.
Ozzy Osbourne
Filmed in England and directed by Wayne Isham (Metallica), the video begins with Ozzy wearing a latex mask which looks like it was moulded from Swaggart's remorseful face.
The performance features Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, who joined the band shortly after the album was recorded, and approximately sixty pigs running amok in a church. The vocalist revealed that the demands of the shoot on his four-legged co-stars led to a ruined pair of suede boots.
“When the music went on, the pigs all took a massive shit at the same time,” Osbourne told Guitar World. “Because it was so fucking loud in there. My wife went, ‘Oh, fuck!’ The playback started and they all went pfffffftttt! Sixty pigs shitting! I had a pair of brand-new suede boots on, and I never wore them again. I couldn’t get the fucking smell of pig shit out of them.”
Miracle Man failed to trouble the charts, reaching number 87 on the UK Official Singles Chart. Despite this commercial wobble, the single was a standout track on No Rest for the Wicked, which was later certified double platinum.
Swaggart, who died three weeks before Ozzy in 2025, was caught in California, with another sex worker in 1991.
"Now Jimmy, he got busted with his pants down..."
