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.
00:08The years after Diary of a Madman were peak Ozzy Osbourne.
00:12These were the years that made him notorious, where his offstage behavior threatened to
00:16become more famous than his music.
00:19Take the time Ozzy bit the head off a dove at a record company meeting.
00:30Or the time he mistook a bat thrown on stage as a toy and bit its head off.
00:45The day he was arrested in Texas pissing on the Alamo.
00:57And the terrible moment when it all came crashing down, March 19, 1982, when guitarist Randy
01:03Rhodes was tragically killed in a plane crash.
01:07But all that came after.
01:10The story of Diary of a Madman really began back in April of 1979.
01:15Fired from Black Sabbath, his marriage falling apart, some people said Ozzy's career was
01:19over.
01:34He was just getting started.
01:42Sharon Arden, the daughter of Don Arden, Black Sabbath's manager, convinced him to put a
01:46band together and offer to become his manager.
01:50In London, Ozzy met Bob Daisley, the bass player for Rainbow.
01:55They auditioned drummers and settled on Uriah Heep'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
02:08Quiet Riot.
02:14He was called Randall William Rhodes, known to the world as Randy Rhodes, one of the greatest
02:19guitar players of all time.
02:22Ozzy 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.
02:37Released in September of 1980 in the UK, it went to number 7 in the charts.
02:41Released in the States the following year, it went to 21 in the Billboard charts, while
02:45standout signal Crazy Train went to number 9.
02:49The band toured the US.
02:51By the time they'd finished, Blizzard of Oz had sold a million copies.
02:56Guitar Player Magazine voted Randy Rhodes Best New Talent of 1981.
03:14Less than a year after they recorded Blizzard, the band were back at Ridge Farm Studios to
03:18record the follow-up, Diary of a Madman.
03:22Ozzy 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
03:30losing his mind.
03:46After months of touring, it was the band who were on fire, and all four members contributed
03:50to the songwriting.
03:56Ozzy 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.
04:05He was flying high again.
04:07On one hand, the song seemed like another of Ozzy's drug anthems, and throughout this
04:11time he was indeed being a bad, bad boy, but it could also be seen as a triumphant two
04:16fingers to everyone who had written him off.
04:19The guitar solo by Randy Rhoads was like a gauntlet being thrown down to the guitar
04:23players of the 1980s.
04:42Album opener and the second single from the album, Over the Mountain, sounded heavy, but
04:46it came with a positive message about finding the magic in yourself.
04:55Randy Rhoads applied a suitably mad guitar solo.
05:06If You Can't Kill Rock and Roll showed a softer side of the band.
05:09The lyrics were no less heavy as Ozzy and Bob Daisley took aim at what they saw as the
05:13lies of the music business.
05:24In between there was the menacing Believer, Power Ballad Tonight, the voodoo symbolism
05:28of Little Dolls, and the mysteriously riffy S.A.T.O.
05:34And then there was the album closer, Diary of a Madman, an ambitious six minute epic
05:39that ends the album in grand style.
05:47All this would be overshadowed by what happened next, but 40 years on, the music remains.
05:52Diary of a Madman is the sound of a time bomb ticking, the crazy train coming off the rails,
05:58and of a band at the peak of its powers.
06:01No two bands ever flew as high.